title: The catecholamines in essential hypertension.
abstract: The evidence for involvement of the catecholamines and their metabolites in essential hypertension is presented. Labile and established essential hypertension should be considered individually in this respect, although they may exist separately or together. Labile essential hypertension is more related to increased secretion as well as increased response to and decreased retention of epinephrine rather than norepinephrine, whereas established essential hypertension is more related to similar aspects of norepinephrine release and metabolism. Whether pure epinephrine hyperresponsiveness, abnormal metabolism, and secretion evolves into the pure norepinephrine hyperresponsiveness and abnormal metabolism of uncomplicated established essential hypertension can only be proved by long-term longitudinal study. Such investigation would also be required to identify the evolution of mixed types of the disease.
mesh_terms: D002395:Catecholamines / Q000378:metabolism*; D004837:Epinephrine / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D009638:Norepinephrine / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D002395:Catecholamines; D009638:Norepinephrine; D004837:Epinephrine