Plasma Catecholamines and Neurogenic Hypertension

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Abstract
To the Editor: We found raised plasma catecholamines in some patients with primary hypertension,1 2 3 implicating neurogenic factors in the pathogenesis of the elevated blood pressure. Lake et al. reported that "no significant alteration in activity of the peripheral sympathetic nervous system in patients with moderately severe essential hypertension is apparent."4 We question this conclusion on several counts. Age and sex matching: Lake and his associates concluded that plasma norepinephrine increases with age in both hypertensive and normal subjects. However, we calculated regression coefficients for norepinephrine versus age from their Figure 1: in normotensive subjects the correlation was significant . . .