Objective: The role of genetic factors in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension has not been fully clarified. In order to characterize the relation between NaCl sensitivity and genetic features of hypertension, the responses to dietary Na manipulations were examined in essential hypertensive patients with and without a family history of hypertension.
Methods: Fifteen essential hypertensive patients, both of whose parents were hypertensive, were compared with 25 hypertensive patients in whom a family history of hypertension was known to be absent in first- and second-degree relatives. There were no differences in gender distribution, age, blood pressure or duration of hypertension between the two groups. Subjects were studied as inpatients on a daily diet of 170 mmol NaCl for 1 week, followed by 1 week on a low-NaCl diet (50 mmol/day) and then by 1 week on a high-NaCl diet (340 mmol/day).
Results: Plasma renin activity on a low-NaCl diet was lower, and the erythrocyte Na+ concentration on both diets higher, in hypertensive patients with than in those without a family history. The elevations in mean blood pressure and in erythrocyte Na+ concentration with a high-NaCl diet were greater in patients with a family history. A significant correlation between the change in mean blood pressure and the change in erythrocyte Na+ concentration was found in patients with a positive family history, but not in those with a negative family history.
Conclusions: Essential hypertensive patients with an apparent hereditary component of hypertension can be characterized as the low-renin and Na-sensitive subgroup with intracellular Na+ accumulation. Genetic features may underlie, at least in part, the heterogeneity of essential hypertension.