Correlations between the hypertensive syndrome and catecholamine production

The concentration of catecholamine (noradrenaline and adrenaline) was studied in the urine of a group of patients with AH comparatively with a control group. A lack of homogeneity was observed in the group of patients, the results allowing the subdivision of hypertensive patients into one subgroup with low CA excretion and another one with high CA excretion. No significant variation of total CA excretion was observed in the first subgroup but the concentration of adrenaline was found to be high. In the second subgroup of patients (with increased CA excretion), noradrenaline excretion was significantly higher, thus proving its involvement in peripheral vasoconstriction. In this subgroup the increased CA production may be attributed to the sympathetic nervous component.