Renal blood flow changes in contralateral kidney of Goldblatt hypertensive dog

Sequential changes in systemic arterial blood pressure (BP), renal blood flow (RBF) in the contralateral kidney, and plasma renin activity (PRA) were examined on conscious dogs with construction of a single renal artery (RAC). An increase of 24 mmHg in bP occurred within 2 days after RAC, and BP later plateaued at a lower level. RBF in the contralateral kidney transiently increased by 24% and then returned to the control level in 11-14 days. PRA also peaked early after RAC and then returned to control. The clamp was tightened and the renal artery was occluded (RAO) 3-20 days after RAC. BP, RBF, and PRA increased to an even greater degree than after RAC. BP peaked at 145 mmHg, and RBF increased 61.5% at 2-3 days after RAO. BP and RBF both decreased but remained above the control for the duration of the study, BP at 127 mmHg and RBF at 256 ml/min. RBF per gram for the hypertrophied contralateral kidney was calculated from the RBF before death and the weight at death. The final RBF per gram of the contralateral kidney (2.7 ml.min-1.g-1) decreased and renal vascular resistance increased compared with the estimated control RBF/g (3.7 ml.min-1.g-1) and renal vascular resistance. These results suggest that the final RBF of the contralateral kidney is not increased in proportion to its increase in weight and that it may be relatively hypoperfused in two-kidney one-clip Goldblatt hypertension.