Fluid balance, renal function, and blood pressure.

Abstract

After many detours in the search for the basic mechanism of hypertension, evidence now seems to corroborate the earliest concept that developed in the 1800's, namely, that hypertension almost always results from a tendency of the kidneys to retain water and salt. Animal studies show that the amount of excess body water and salt required to cause hypertension is exceedingly small, and that the hypertensive effect of the excess water and salt may not develop for days or weeks. When vascular constriciton occurs simultaneously, as occurs in the presence of large quantities of angiotensin, the blood volume may be less than normal, but even in these circumstances the fluid volume is relatively increased and is responsible for the hypertension because the vascular constrictont has decreased the capacity of the circulation to a greater extent than the decrease in blood volume.