title: Relationship between urinary kallikrein excretion and plasma atrial natriuretic factor in essential hypertensives.
abstract: Relationships between renal kallikrein and plasma atrial natriuretic factor were investigated by measuring urinary kallikrein excretion (by spectrophotometric assay) and plasma atrial natriuretic factor (by radio-immunoassay after extraction from plasma) in 84 normal subjects and in 104 essential hypertensives with a normal renal function. The atrial natriuretic factor was significantly higher in the essential hypertensives than in the normal subjects (38.5 +/- 1.3 versus 29.0 +/- 1.3 pg/ml, P less than 0.01), whereas urinary kallikrein excretion was significantly lower in the hypertensives than in the normal subjects (11.1 +/- 0.9 versus 15.3 +/- 0.6 nkat/24 h, P less than 0.01). Taking the 95% confidence limits of urinary kallikrein excretion in the normal subjects (from 4.5 to 29.9 nkat/24 h), we divided our essential hypertensives into two subgroups, patients with a normal kallikrein excretion (n = 80; mean urinary kallikrein excretion 13.8 +/- 0.8 nkat/24 h) and patients with a low kallikrein excretion (n = 24; mean urinary kallikrein excretion 2.3 +/- 0.3 nkat/24 h) The patients with a normal kallikrein excretion had a mean plasma atrial natriuretic factor value of 31.9 +/- 1.2 pg/ml, which was similar to that found in normal subjects. In contrast, the mean plasma level of atrial natriuretic factor in the patients with a low kallikrein excretion (50.7 +/- 2.2 pg/ml) was significantly higher than that measured in the patients with a normal kallikrein excretion and in the normal subjects (P less than 0.01 versus patients with normal kallikrein excretion and normal subjects, respectively).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Patologia Medica, University of Ancona, Italy.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dessì-Fulgheri
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Di Noto
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Palermo
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Catalini
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Russo
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rappelli
mesh_terms: D000906:Antibodies / Q000032:analysis; D009320:Atrial Natriuretic Factor / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D007610:Kallikreins / Q000652:urine*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012964:Sodium / Q000652:urine
chemical_list: D000906:Antibodies; D009320:Atrial Natriuretic Factor; D012964:Sodium; D007610:Kallikreins