Autometrically and automatically monitored, iatrogenous, inhalant-decongestant-associated high blood pressure quantified by rhythmometry.

Blood pressure and heart rate were oscillometrically monitored with an automatic Nippon Colin instrument (Komaki, Japan) and were also self-measured by a 20-year-old man treated with an inhalant-decongestant containing an adrenergic and a corticosteroid analog. The subject also collected 24-hr urines for aldosterone determination. An elevation of urinary aldosterone excretion was observed compared to the usual value range of a peer group. After removal of the drug, urinary aldosterone dropped as did urinary potassium, whereas plasma potassium rose. Chronobiologic serial sections, carried out to follow the time course of blood pressure and heart rate, showed decreasing trends in MESOR after discontinuance of treatment. A decrease in the hyperbaric index, a measure of blood pressure excess over 24 hr, was also observed. Another subject treated with the same and a third treated with a similar inhalant-decongestant, who also monitored their blood pressures automatically and/or with self-measurements, showed similar effects: a decrease in blood pressure after removal of treatment and an increase in blood pressure when (for testing only) treatment was briefly resumed.