An association between mineral metabolism and the renin-aldosterone system in human hypertension.

In recent years abnormalities of calcium metabolism have been described in human hypertension. In this study, the relationships between indices of calcium metabolism and the renin-aldosterone system were studied in 39 subjects with untreated essential hypertension. No significant associations were found between the major determinants of calcium metabolism (plasma ionised calcium, parathyroid hormone and 1,25(OH)2-vitamin D) and the renin-aldosterone system. Serum magnesium was, however, positively correlated to plasma renin activity (PRA) (r = 0.38, P less than 0.05) while both 24 h urinary excretion of calcium and cAMP were found to be correlated to both PRA and urinary aldosterone in a positive way (r = 0.39-0.42, P less than 0.01 and r = 0.33-0.57, P less than 0.01, respectively). In this study there was no other evidence of any major influence of the renin-aldosterone status on the calcium balance in human hypertension. The urinary leak of calcium might be determined by the action of the renin-aldosterone system.