[The relationship between hepatitis B and renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system]

The angiotensin II (AT II) levels in plasma were measured 68 times by using radio-immunoassay in 30 patients with viral hepatitis B (HB) and in 35 healthy persons as the control group. The results showed that the AT II levels of patients with HB were much higher than those of the control group (P less than 0.001). They were 219.25 +/- 91.31 ng/L and 60.70 +/- 10.73 ng/L, respectively. These indicated that the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) of the patients was in exciting state. The levels of 8 cases of severe chronic active hepatitis (SCAH) (AT II = 270.40 +/- 106.55 ng/L, 6 cases of subacute fulminant hepatitis (SFH) (AT II = 332.80 +/- 140.12 ng/L), and 4 cases of hepatocirrhosis (HC) (AT II = 218.50 +/- 97.64 pg/ml) were all higher than those of 8 cases of chronic active hepatitis (CAH) (100.50 +/- 83.81 ng/L) and those of 4 cases of acute icteric hepatitis (A1H) (123.33 +/- 64.97 ng/L). These findings showed that the levels of AT II were directly related with the severity of the illness. The AT II levels of 8 cases of HRS (270.50 +/- 66.31 ng/L) were higher that those without HRS (174.50 +/- 78.48 ng/L). After treatment with captopril (CPT), the renal function of the patients returned to normal and the patients got better, while the AT II levels decreased greatly. The results suggested that high AT II levels in plasma may be one of the causes aggressing the HRS. The CPT may inhibit the produce of AT II and there are some therapeutic effects for the HRS.