Atrial natriuretic peptide and the renal response to hypervolemia in nephrotic humans

To elucidate the abnormality of body fluid homeostasis that attends the nephrotic syndrome, we compared the atrial hormonal and renal excretory and vasomotor responses to water immersion of nephrotic patients (N = 10) with those of healthy controls (N = 9). Nephrotics exhibited depressed baseline levels of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP, P less than 0.05) and lower rates of urine flow and sodium excretion (P less than 0.01). Although immersion-induced hypervolemia increased plasma ANP to equivalent levels (75 +/- 19 vs. 60 +/- 6 pg/ml), the disparity in corresponding urinary flow (5 +/- 1 vs. 13 +/- 2 ml/min, P less than 0.01) and sodium excretion (171 +/- 42 vs. 540 +/- 65 muEq/min, P less than 0.01) grew larger. In contrast, immersion caused an equivalent reduction of renal vascular resistance by 16 and 17%, respectively (P less than 0.01). Despite higher renal plasma flow and lower oncotic pressure of plasma, the glomerular filtration rate remained constant during immersion in both groups. Similar constancy of fractional clearances of dextrans of graded size suggests that immersion may have lowered the glomerular transcapillary hydraulic pressure difference (delta P). We conclude that renal vasomotor responsiveness to hypervolemia is preserved in nephrotics, but that the mediatory role of ANP in this response is uncertain. By contrast, diminished responsiveness of the distal nephron to the natriuretic action of endogenous ANP could contribute to edema formation in the nephrotic syndrome.