title: Decreased angiotensin-converting enzyme in the adult respiratory distress syndrome.
abstract: Using hippuryl-L-histidyl-L-leucine as substrate, serum angiotensin-converting enzyme was measured in 13 patients who had adult respiratory distress syndrome, eight patients with respiratory failure without adult respiratory distress syndrome, and two groups of controls: 24 healthy blood donors and 24 hospitalized patients with a variety of conditions but without respiratory failure or adult respiratory distress syndrome. Serum angiotensin-converting enzyme expressed in units/ml was 14.60 +/- 5.60 for adult respiratory distress syndrome compared with 28.92 +/- 6.60 for the blood donors, 20.76 +/- 5.87 for the patients with respiratory failure without adult respiratory distress syndrome and 20.20 +/- 5.94 in the hospitalized patients without respiratory failure or adult respiratory distress syndrome. These differences were significant, P less than .001 when adult respiratory distress syndrome was tested against the blood donors and P less than .01 against the other two groups. The significance of these findings is not clear, but the possibility is raised that the decrease of angiotensin-converting enzyme in adult respiratory distress syndrome results from a loss of pulmonary endothelial cells, which are known both to produce angiotensin-converting enzyme and to be damaged in adult respiratory distress syndrome.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D007703:Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A / Q000378:metabolism*; D012083:Renin / Q000097:blood; D012128:Respiratory Distress Syndrome / Q000201:enzymology*
chemical_list: D007703:Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A; D012083:Renin