The relationship of aldosterone to mild essential hypertension

Twenty-five carrier patients with mild essential hypertension (MEH) were studied. These were carefully selected, with an age range between 30 and 60 years (mean 44 years). A series of physical, biochemical and humoral parameters were studied. For purposes of comparison, 36 normotensive patients were studied under the same conditions. Our results showed that plasma aldosterone (PA) and urine aldosterone (UA) had higher values in essential hypertensive patients (p less than 0.05). The plasma renin activity (PRA) showed a slight decrease, although without statistical significance. In this same group the PA/pra coefficient was found to be high (p less than 0.05) which shows a loss of relationship between PRA and PA. In the essential hypertensive patients was found an equal correlation between PRA and PA with daily excretion of potassium (p less than 0.05) which was not shown in normal patients; on the other hand, in these latter cases was found a very significant correlation between the renin-aldosterone (RA) system and 24-hr. urinary sodium levels (p less than 0.001). Based on these findings, we believe that in this type of hypertension an aldosterone disturbance exists, which must be linked directly or indirectly to the disturbance of sodium regulation. The modifications produced in the RA system in this type of hypertension is similar to the modifications found in older subjects (greater than 60 years) in the RA system hormone axis. We cannot clearly explain these findings, but we believe that essential arterial hypertension accelerated a physiological process in elderly subjects (greater than 60 years).