Reactivity of the Skin Vessels to Noradrenalin and Angiotensin in Arterial Hypertension

Abstract

Intravenous infusions of 1-noradrenalin and synthetic angiotensin at a rate of 2 μg/min. were given to 15 untreated patients with high blood pressure and to 15 matching control patients of the same sex and approximately the same age and build.

The effect of the infusions on blood pressure was similar in both groups whereas the constriction of skin vessels measured calorimetrically was significantly greater in the group with high pressures.

The findings may be due to a primary alteration of the sensitivity of the vascular musculature to constrictive substances in hypertension, but they are equally well explained as an unspecific secondary phenomenon depending upon structural changes in the blood vessel wall, such as medial hypertrophy or intimal proliferation.