[Endothelin in arterial hypertension].

A study was made of the concentration of endothelin (ET) in the plasma of patients suffering from arterial hypertension (AH), heart failure (HF) and in that of healthy volunteers. The concentration of ET in the normal subjects was within 4.0-8.6 pg/ml, in the patients with AH, it varied from 5.7 to 64.5 pg/ml, and in the patients suffering from HF, from 8.8 to 94.0 pg/ml. A subgroup of patients with essential hypertension, stage II B, showed a tendency towards a rise of the ET concentration in response to orthostatic load that was associated with an increase of the concentration of angiotensin-2.