THE EFFECTS OF INTRAVENOUS INFUSIONS OF VALINE-5 ANGIOTENSIN II AND OTHER PRESSOR AGENTS ON URINARY ELECTROLYTES AND CORTICOSTEROIDS, INCLUDING ALDOSTERONE*

Abstract

Previous studies from this laboratory (1-4) have shown that: 1) there is a statistically significant increase in the mean urinary aldosterone excretion from groups of patients with essential, renal or malignant hypertension, as compared with that of normal subjects similarly studied; 2) 43 per cent of patients with essential hypertension have urinary aldosterone values above normal limits; 3) there is an excessive fluctuation of daily urinary aldosterone in hypertensive patients, from normal to above normal levels, which is most prominent in the early phase of the disease; and 4) mean urinary preglnanetriol is significantly decreased (p < 0.001) in the same groups of hyper- tensive patients, and the pregnanetriol/aldosterone ratio is below the lower limits of normal range in 92 per cent of all patients studied with arterial hypertension.