Plasma renin activity and ischemic heart disease.
BACKGROUND
An earlier prospective study reported an association between high levels of plasma renin activity (as measured by the renin-sodium profile) and the incidence of myocardial infarction in patients with hypertension. We have investigated the relation between plasma renin activity and ischemic heart disease in the Northwick Park Heart Study.


METHODS
The study included 803 white men 40 to 64 years of age selected from industrial workers in London. Plasma renin activity and established risk factors for ischemic heart disease were measured at entry, which was between 1972 and 1978. Ascertainment of the primary clinical end points of fatal or nonfatal myocardial infarction and sudden death from coronary causes was carried out until the end of 1991.


RESULTS
In an analysis of the 86 first coronary events, we found an independent relation between higher systolic blood pressure and coronary end points (relative risk per 1 SD increase in blood pressure, 1.47; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.16 to 1.85; P < 0.001), but no relation between plasma renin activity and coronary end points (relative risk per 1 SD increase in the level of plasma renin activity, 1.04; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.84 to 1.30). In the 242 men who had hypertension of a degree similar to that of the subjects in the earlier prospective study of the renin profile, and in whom 44 of the 86 coronary events occurred, the relative risk of those in the highest as compared with the lowest third for plasma renin activity was 1.26 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.63 to 2.56).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that there is no association between plasma renin activity and myocardial infarction or sudden death from coronary causes, at least in normotensive men.
Meade
T W
TW
Medical Research Council Epidemiology and Medical Care Unit, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Medical College of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London.
Cooper
J A
JA
Peart
W S
WS
D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003645:Death, Sudden / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000097:blood* / Q000503:physiopathology; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012083:Renin / Q000097:blood*; D012306:Risk
D012083:Renin