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(Hypertension. 2001;38:373.)
© 2001 American Heart Association, Inc.

Scientific Contribution

Adrenal Response to Angiotensin II in Black Hypertension

Lack of Sexual Dimorphism

Naomi D.L. Fisher; Shelley Hurwitz; Xavier Jeunemaitre; Deborah A. Price; Gordon H. Williams; Norman K. Hollenberg

From the Departments of Medicine and Radiology, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (N.D.L.F., S.H., D.A.P., G.H.W., N.K.H.), Boston, Mass; and Departement de Genetique, Hôpital European Georges Pompidou (X.J.), Paris, France.

Reprint requests to Naomi D.L. Fisher, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 221 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115. E-mail nfisher{at}partners.org

Abstract—— Adrenal responsiveness to angiotensin (Ang) II is markedly blunted in black hypertensive patients compared with white hypertensive patients. One characteristic of this blunted adrenal response in whites is a powerful sexual dimorphism: premenopausal white women rarely show blunted responses. This abnormality, most evident when the system is activated by a low-salt diet, is a cardinal feature of the syndrome of nonmodulation, affecting a large percentage of white hypertensive patients. Nonmodulation is also marked by an increase in cardiovascular risk beyond that from hypertension itself. This study investigated whether young black women are likewise spared its expression or whether the adrenal unresponsiveness common among black hypertensive patients is unaccompanied by a gender bias. We compared the adrenal response to Ang II in 382 hypertensive patients (313 white, 69 black; 238 male, 144 female). Ang II was infused when subjects were in balance on a 10-mmol Na⁺ intake. As anticipated, white hypertensive patients showed a very strong sexual dimorphism, with women having twice the aldosterone response of men (P=0.0001). Blacks, on the other hand, showed no gender difference (P=0.9). Increasing age had the dramatic effect of reducing responsiveness in white women but not in blacks. Young black women demonstrated the same blunting of adrenal responsiveness as older black women and black men of all ages. Mechanisms protecting against a blunted adrenal response to Ang II in young white women are absent in blacks. These differences may contribute to the markedly increased prevalence of hypertension in young black women.

Key Words: angiotensin II • race • gender • aldosterone • potassium • hypertension, renal

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