Association between essential hypertension and three vasoactive peptides, urotensin II, endothelin and adrenomedullin.

Aim: The aim of the study is to measure the vasoactive peptides, urotensin II (UII), endothelin (ET) and adrenomedullin (ADM) in a well-characterized population of normal controls and patients with essential hypertension, and to study their association with this disease.

Methods: The contents of plasma UII, ET and ADM were measured by radioimmunoassay in 40 normal controls and 120 patients with essential hypertension. Echocardiographic examinations were performed using an ultrasonic system, and the left ventricular end diastolic diameter (LVEDd) along with the left ventricular posterior wall thickness (LVPWT) and interventricular septal thickness (IST) were determined. The left ventricular mass index (LVMI) was calculated according to the method reported by Devereux et al.

Results: Plasma UII, ET and ADM contents were increased in patients than healthy controls (3.28 ± 1.257 pmol/L vs. 1.80 ± 0.639 pmol/L, p < 0.01), and correlated with the severity of hypertension in patients. Besides, all the three vasoactive peptides in plasma had significant correlations with SBP, IST, LVPWT, LVMI (p ≤ 0.05), while they showed insignificant associations with LVEDd (p > 0.05). UII was remarkably associated with ADM content, while the association of UII level with LVEDd and ET content were not significant.

Conclusion: The vasoactive peptides UII, ET and ADM may be involved in the pathophysiologic process of essential hypertension, and function as the indicators for severity of this disease.