Active and inactive renin after a single dose of captopril in hypertensive patients.
In 25 hypertensive patients (15 with renal artery stenosis and 10 with essential hypertension), captopril, in a single 12.5 mg dose, caused a prompt decrease in arterial pressure without changing the heart rate. Plasma active and trypsin-activated renin significantly increases, whereas inactive renin and plasma aldosterone decreased. The plasma active/inactive renin ratio was also increased, suggesting that captopril, together with a release of active renin, may induce an in vivo activation of inactive renin. No correlations were found between blood pressure changes and both pretreatment and captopril-induced variations of active, inactive and trypsin-activated renin or the active/inactive ratio. However, the percent decrease in mean arterial pressure was significantly related to the increase in the active/inactive renin ratio in a group of patients whose blood pressure was brought to normal (r = -0.78; p less than 0.001). This finding suggests the possibility that vasodilating substances, in addition to inhibiting angiotensin II formation, might play some role both in exerting a full effect of captopril on blood pressure and in triggering the in vivo mechanisms of inactive renin activation.
D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D002216:Captopril / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006977:Hypertension, Renal / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006978:Hypertension, Renovascular / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011392:Proline / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D012083:Renin / Q000097:blood*
D011392:Proline; D002216:Captopril; D012083:Renin