Decreased Angiotensin-converting Enzyme in the Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome

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Abstract
Bedrossian, Carlos W. M., Woo, Jannie, Miller, Warren C., and Cannon, Donald C.: Decreased angiotensin-converting enzyme in the adult respiratory distress syndrome. Am J Clin Pathol 70: 244–247, 1978. Using hippuryl-L-histidyl-L-leucine as substrate, serum angiotensin-converting enzyme was measured in 13 patients who had adult respiratory distress syndrome, eight patients with respiratory failure without adult respiratory distress syndrome, and two groups of controls: 24 healthy blood donors and 24 hospitalized patients with a variety of conditions but without respiratory failure or adult respiratory distress syndrome. Serum angiotensin-converting enzyme expressed in units/ml was 14.60 ± 5.60 for adult respiratory distress syndrome compared with 28.92 ± 6.60 for the blood donors, 20.76 ± 5.87 for the patients with respiratory failure without adult respiratory distress syndrome and 20.20 ± 5.94 in the hospitalized patients without respiratory failure or adult respiratory distress syndrome. These differences were significant, P < .001 when adult respiratory distress syndrome was tested against the blood donors and P < .01 against the other two groups. The significance of these findings is not clear, but the possibility is raised that the decrease of angiotensin-converting enzyme in adult respiratory distress syndrome results from a loss of pulmonary endothelial cells, which are known both to produce angiotensin-converting enzyme and to be damaged in adult respiratory distress syndrome.

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