RENIN SECRETION IN ESSENTIAL AND ACCELERATED HYPERTENSION

The simultaneous determination of renal blood flow with 133Xe washout and renin activity in arterial and renal vein blood has allowed calculation of net renin secretion from the kidneys of twenty-seven patients with essential and accelerated hypertension. Renin secretion was very low in patients with uncomplicated essential hypertension in whom renal hemodynamics and selective renal arteriograms were normal. A significant increase in renin secretion was found in patients with essential hypertension complicated by moderately severe small artery disease in the kidney and reduced renal blood flow. The observation that patients with small artery disease involving the kidney had both a significant increase in renin secretion rate and significantly higher blood pressure levels raises the possibility that the increased renin secretion contributed to the severity of the hypertension in these patients. Patients with malignant hypertension had a very large increase in the rate of renin secretion. © 1969.