[Results of radioimmunologic determination of renin activity and the concentration of angiotensin II in the plasma of hypertensive patients]

Abstract

Studies of plasma renin activity performed by way of radioimmunoassay in 44 patients with essential hypertension permitted to subdivide the patients with Stage 2 disease into 2 groups: Group 1 with normal or elevated plasma renin activity, and Group 2 -- with sub-normal activity. A statistically significant reverse relationship was found between the age of the hypertensive patients and their plasma renin activity; this parameter tends to decrease along with the increasing duration of the disease. With paralled determinations of renin activity by way of radioimmunoassay and biological method in 20 patients a positive correlation was established; the figures obtained by radioimmunoassay were twice as high as those obtained by the biological technique. A radioimmunological determination of the concentration of angiotensin II in 14 patients with essential hypertension and in 4 normals permitted to reveal its elevation over the level of the normals in 10 of the patients. Positive correlation was established between the renin activity and the angiotensin II concentration.