[Pineal gland melatonin-producing function in elderly patients with hypertensive disease: age peculiarities]

This work was aimed at study changes of the epiphyseal melatonin-producing function in elderly patients with hypertensive disease, as well as the relationships of those changes with the degree of arterial hypertension and 24-hour arterial pressure profile disorders. Examination of 18 young (20-34 years) and 20 elderly (60-74 years) healthy people has documented the decrease of melatonin-producing function in aging. In the group of 100 hypertensive disease patients, the nocturnal 6-hydro-oxymelatonin-sulafate (6-HMS) excretion was significantly lower (by 26.5%) than in their healthy age-matched individuals, thus evidencing for more pronounced disturbance of the melatonin-producing function in the former. It is noteworthy that lower melatonin-producing function of the epiphysis was revealed in the patients with the higher level of average 24-hour arterial pressure value and in the patients with a disturbed 24-hour arterial pressure profile "non-dippers".