title: [Changes in circulating endothelial cells in patients with essential hypertension].
abstract: To observe the damage of vascular endothelium in vivo, we measured the circulating endothelial cell (CEC) with Hladovec's method in 30 patients with essential hypertension (EH) and 66 normal controls. The CEC was verified by direct immunofluorescent staining using anti-human factor VIII serum. The results showed that a significantly increased CEC count was found in patients with EH (3.018 +/- 1.230 vs 1.310 +/- 0.710, P less than 0.01), but the number of CEC was not parallel to the change of blood pressure quantitatively. After antihypertensive therapy, the CEC count reduced markedly in partial patients (3.371 +/- 0.770 vs 2.410 +/- 0.782, P less than 0.05). The study indicated that the damage of vascular endothelium indeed existed in EH, the abnormality can be improved by antihypertension. The CEC count was a simple and sensitive method for the demonstration of endothelial lesion in vivo.
authors.affiliation: Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002452:Cell Count; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009543:Nifedipine / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D009543:Nifedipine