Ildiko Radichevich

Cigarette smoking in hypertensive patients. Blood pressure and endocrine responses

The blood pressure and endocrine responses to cigarette smoking were studied in 19 hypertensive patients to determine whether smoking activates the renin-aldosterone axis. Blood pressure rose from 140 +/- 7/99 +/- 3 (mean +/- SEM) to 151 +/- 5/108 +/- 2 mm Hg (p less than 0.01) within 10 minutes after smoking, and pulse rate also increased significantly (69 +/- 2 to 96 +/- 4 beats per minute). Plasma renin activity did not change but rose 15 minutes after ambulation. In contrast, plasma aldosterone and plasma cortisol levels increased significantly after smoking and peaked at 20 minutes: 13.9 +/- 0.9 to 20.2 +/- 2.0 ng/dl (p less than 0.01) and 10.2 +/- 1.0 to 22.0 +/- 2.2 micrograms/dl (p less than 0.01), respectively. These responses were closely correlated (r = 0.6467, p less than 0.01), suggesting a pituitary-adrenal mechanism is activated during smoking. Plasma ACTH levels rose from 58 +/- 6 to 87 +/- 10 pg/ml in 10 minutes (p less than 0.001) and to 90 +/- 14 pg/ml at 20 minutes (p less than 0.01). Total plasma catecholamine levels also rose from 468 +/- 60 to 624 +/- 73 pg/ml 10 minutes after smoking (p less than 0.01) and to 724 +/- 69 pg/ml (p less than 0.01) 15 minutes after ambulation. In hypertensive smokers, cigarette smoking is associated with an increase in blood pressure, pulse rate, and plasma ACTH, cortisol, aldosterone, and plasma catecholamine levels. The long-term significance of these acute hormonal changes in regard to blood pressure homeostasis and vascular disease in cigarette smokers remains to be determined. Smoking should be avoided prior to blood pressure and endocrine determinations.

Detection of Renovascular Hypertension with Angiotensin II Blockade

Angiotensin II blockade with sarcosine 1-alanine 8-angiotensin II (saralasin, P-113) was done in 40 studies of 20 hypertensive patients. Eleven of 12 patients with a depressor response to angiotensin II blockade had significant renovascular or renal disease, and nine of 10 had renal vein renin measurements that lateralized to the abnormal kidney. In contrast, none of the patients without a depressor response had renovascular abnormalities. Plasma renin activity was usually high in responders to saralasin (18 ng/ml-h) when compared with nonresponders (0.5 ng/ml-h). In these studies a correlation between the fall in blood pressure and the rise in plasma renin activity during angiotensin II blockade was observed while renin was unchanged in the absence of depressor responses. In two renovascular renin-dependent hypertensive patients, treatment with diuretics induced severe hyperreninemia and a rise in blood pressure that was reversed by sodium loading.

The probable presence of diiodotyrosine and of monoiodotyrosine in human serum. A discrepancy between the distribution of iodo compounds when estimated by I131 and by I127

Abstract 1. 1. After administration of tracer doses of NaI 131 , approximately 90% of the organic radioactive iodine appeared in the serum as the iodinated thyronines (thyroxine-I 131 and triiodothyronine-I 131 ). 2. 2. On the other hand, iodotyrosines-I 127 accounted for approximately one-third to one-half of the organic I 127 compounds in serum. 3. 3. The discrepancy between the findings obtained with I 131 and with I 127 indicated that radioactive iodide as usually employed cannot be used to measure the distribution of iodoamino acids in serum.

Excessive thyrotropin concentrations in the circulation of the spontaneously hypertensive rat.

Summary Thyroid function in SHR was compared to that of inbred normotensive Wistar rats from Kyoto, and random bred Wistar rats from the United States. A marked increase in circulating thyrotropin concentration was found in SHR compared to controls. Serum thyroxine and T3 concentrations relative to controls, however, were variable and the concentrations in male and female SHR relative to Kyoto controls did not correspond with each other. No ready explanation for the circulating excess of thyrotropin, with minimal increase in T4 and T3 concentrations, is available.

Materials Indistinguishable from Iodotyrosines in Normal Human Serum and Human Serum Albumin

Materials indistinguishable from authentic mono- and diiodotyrosines were identified in extracts of normal human serum as well as in extracts of purified human serum albumin. These materials were not found in association with the other serum proteins. Identification of MIT and DIT was made by a technique using rechromatography to constant specific activity, as well as by the Barker wet ash distillation method, which established the compounds in question as being iodinated ones. By two different extraction and chromatographic methods we estimated the amounts of both MIT and DIT present in normal human serum or albumin; the estimates were in good agreement. These compounds together constituted between 19% and 25% of the extractable serum iodine.

Treatment of Drug-resistant Hypertension with Minoxidil or Angiotensin-converting Enzyme Inhibitor: Blood Pressure, Renin, Aldosterone, and Electrolyte Responses

The effects of minoxidil and the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor SQ 14,225 on blood pressure, sodium balance, plasma renin activity, plasma aldosterone concentration, aldosterone excretion rate, and renal function were studied in 11 drug-resistant hypertensive patients under controlled diets of sodium and potassium intake. Minoxidil treatment lowered blood pressure from 178/112

In vivo labelling of extractable iodotyrosines in serum of rat and dog.

8/5 mm Hg (means

Rapid radioimmunoassay for both T4 and T3 in the same sample of human serum.

SEM) to 145/95

Nontoxic nodular goiter with formation and release of a compound with the chromatographic mobility characteristics of triiodothyronine.

6/3 mm Hg. Plasma renin activity rose from 4.8

Artifactual Elevation of PBI from an Iodinated Dye Used To Stain Medicinal Capsules Pink

1.7 ng/ml/hr to 9.9