title: Plasma renin activity in chagasic patients with and without congestive heart failure.
abstract: Chagasic patients with advanced heart disease have fluid retention-dependent symptoms. Since fluid retention is mostly dependent on the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, chagasic patients with congestion related symptoms should have activation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the plasma renin activity baseline values of chagasic patients with and without congestive heart failure. Twenty-eight patients with positive serology for Chagas' disease were studied. Nineteen patients were asymptomatic (functional class I New York Heart Association) and nine were symptomatic (functional classes II-IV). Cardiac catheterization and ventricular cineangiography were performed on 20 patients. The symptomatic patients had significantly higher plasma renin activity levels (4.11 +/- 1.03 ng/ml/h) than the asymptomatic patients (1.08 +/- 0.11 ng/ml/h, P < 0.001) and the normal sedentary controls (1.65 +/- 0.22 ng/ml/h, P < 0.05, mean +/- S.E.). The plasma renin activity baseline values of the asymptomatic and symptomatic patients correlated directly with the baseline heart rate (r = 0.77, P < 0.0001). The symptomatic patients had larger ventricular volumes, moderately depressed ejection fractions and increased left ventricular end-diastolic pressures. The plasma renin activity baseline values also correlated directly with the left ventricular diastolic pressures (r = 0.70, P < 0.0006) and with the left ventricular diastolic (r = 0.66, P < 0.001) and systolic volumes (r = 0.67, P < 0.001). These results indicate that chagasic patients with fluid retention-dependent symptoms and hemodynamic evidence of left ventricular systolic dysfunction have activation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system.
authors.affiliation: Centro Cardiovascular, Universidad de Los Andes, Venezuela.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bellabarba
authors.forename: D F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Davila
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Torres
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Donis
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Figueroa
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Vasquez
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Faddoul
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khoury
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization; D002598:Chagas Cardiomyopathy / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000097:blood* / Q000503:physiopathology; D002932:Cineangiography; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology*; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012083:Renin / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000097:blood*; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology
chemical_list: D012083:Renin