Renal effects of atrial natriuretic peptide during dopamine infusion

To study whether the renal effects of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) are different from those of dopamine, we compared the effects of dopamine and dopamine plus ANP on renal circulation. Dopamine was infused at 1 microgram/kg/min for 120 min into 7 patients with essential hypertension (EH) and 5 normotensive subjects (NT). After 40 min of dopamine infusion, ANP infusion at 25 ng/kg/min was added to dopamine for 40 min. Before, during and after the infusion, renal function and nephrogenous cGMP were determined. Dopamine did not influence blood pressure, but increased urinary Na excretion (UNaV) by 100% in EH and NT. Addition of ANP further increased UNaV by 90%, but increases in UNaV were greater in EH than in NT. Renal blood flow was increased only by dopamine, while glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was increased by both dopamine (+8%) and dopamine plus ANP (+7%) as a whole, resulting in a significant increase in filtration fraction by the addition of ANP. Plasma and urinary cGMP and nephrogenous cGMP were elevated only during ANP infusion. These results suggest that the effects of ANP and dopamine on both GFR and UNaV were additive. However, in contrast with dopamine, ANP increased efferent resistance and nephrogenous cGMP, suggesting that the renal effects of ANP are different from those of dopamine.