Endocrine factors of blood pressure regulation in different age groups

Systolic and diastolic blood pressures were measured and blood and urine were collected at 4-hr intervals over a 24-hr span in 194 diurnally active children 11 +/- 1.5 years of age and in 278 elderly subjects 77 +/- 8 years of age. Plasma aldosterone and cortisol were determined by radioimmunoassay, serum calcium and magnesium on a Dupont ACA, and urinary epinephrine and norepinephrine by high-pressure liquid chromatography. In the children, there was a slight but statistically significant positive correlation between the circadian means in systolic blood pressure and norepinephrine excretion and serum calcium, and between diastolic blood pressure and norepinephrine excretion and serum calcium and magnesium. In the elderly subjects, there was a positive correlation between the circadian mean in diastolic blood pressure and aldosterone. In contrast to the findings in the children, however, the elderly subjects showed a negative correlation between the circadian means in norepinephrine excretion and in systolic and diastolic blood pressures. These investigations indicate differences in the regulation of the blood pressure within the "usual range" between children and elderly subjects. This has to be kept in mind in the study of essential hypertension, a syndrome that may be caused by different mechanisms in different age groups.