Norepinephrine release in essential hypertension

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Abstract
Supine basal plasma norepinephrine [NE] was higher in a group of newly diagnosed patients with mild essential hypertension than in age- and sex-matched laboratory-naive volunteers. Sympathetic activation by exercise and change of posture increased plasma NE in both groups, with a tendency toward higher values in the hypertensive patients, but NE clearance was slower and half-life longer in these patients. The estimate of neuronal NE release obtained by correction of plasma NE for individual values of clearance was in the same range in both groups. Plasma NE was lower in younger laboratory-adapted subjects than in the laboratory-native normotensive subjects, but clearance was in the same range in both. Variations in kinetics may contribute to differences in plasma NE between patients with essential hypertension and matched controls. The lower plasma concentrations of NE in laboratory-adapted than in laboratory-naive controls appears to reflect a lower level of sympathetic activity in the former.