Essential hypertension versus secondary hypertension: discrimination by intracellular electrolytes.
Intracellular activities of sodium and calcium were determined in red blood cells in a group of 106 patients, consisting of essential and renal hypertensives and of normotensives with and without renal insufficiency. Calcium and sodium activities were elevated in essential hypertensives as compared to hypertensives suffering from renal insufficiency. Compared to normotensives without renal insufficiency higher sodium and calcium activities were measured in normotensives without renal impairment. Thus the results suggest that the determination of intracellular electrolytes might be a useful tool for the distinction of secondary hypertension. Furthermore, as yet unidentified humoral factors produced in the kidney might be involved in the regulation of the blood pressure, as a decrease in production of these hypothetic humoral factors (following the destruction of renal tissue) could be the cause for the changes in electrolyte composition.
D000328:Adult; D002118:Calcium / Q000097:blood*; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D006977:Hypertension, Renal / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012964:Sodium / Q000097:blood*
D012964:Sodium; D002118:Calcium