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Blunting of Beta-Adrenoceptor-Mediated Cardiovascular Responses and Increasing Alpha-Receptor-Mediated Vasoconstriction: An Age-Dependent Transformation of Essential Hypertension

  • Conference paper
Hypertension: Mechanisms and Management

Part of the book series: International Boehringer Mannheim Symposia ((BOEHRINGER))

  • 29 Accesses

Summary

The role of the sympathetic nervous system in cardiac, renal and peripheral vascular adrenoceptor-mediated responses was investigated in patients with essential hypertension and age-matched normotensive subjects. Regardless of age, plasma adrenaline was significantly higher in hypertensive when compared with normotensive subjects. This suggests a sympatho-adrenal factor in essential hypertension. Plasma noradrenaline tended to increase with age but its similarity between normotensive and hypertensive subjects points to similar postganglionic neural activity and/or similar overflow of noradrenaline into the circulation. On the other hand, beta-adrenoceptor-mediated tachycardia in response to exercise and intravenous isoproterenol as well as the forearm vasodilator response to intraarterial isoproterenol decreased in normal subjects with older age. In hypertensives this age-dependent beta-receptor-related effect tends to be enhanced as judged from the greater reduction of cardiac isoproterenol sensitivity and the blunted renin response to exercise stimulation.

The dilator response to alpha-adrenoceptor blockade with phentolamine was not different in both groups. Therefore a qualitative rather than quantitative derangement of sympathetic control of vascular resistance — in which beta-dilator effects are reduced and alpha-constrictor mechanisms prevail — may contribute to the maintenance of established hypertension.

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Authors
  1. F. R. Bühler
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  2. W. Kiowski
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  3. F. W. Amann
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  4. P. Bolli
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  5. O. Bertel
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  6. P. van Brummelen
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  7. R. Landmann
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. I. Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik, Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Langenbeckstraße 1, D-6500, Mainz, Germany

    Thomas Philipp  & Armin Distler  & 

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© 1980 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Bühler, F.R. et al. (1980). Blunting of Beta-Adrenoceptor-Mediated Cardiovascular Responses and Increasing Alpha-Receptor-Mediated Vasoconstriction: An Age-Dependent Transformation of Essential Hypertension. In: Philipp, T., Distler, A. (eds) Hypertension: Mechanisms and Management. International Boehringer Mannheim Symposia. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-67712-0_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-67712-0_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-10171-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-67712-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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