[Plasma renin activity and aldosterone concentration of patients with congestive cardiomyopathy].

Blood plasma aldosterone concentration and renin plasma activity were studied in 30 patients with congestive cardiomyopathy and in 41 patients with congestive heart failure resulting from CHD or valvular heart disease using a radio-immunoassay. In congestive cardiomyopathy as well as in congestive heart failure of another etiology an increase in plasma renin activity was noted in single cases in stages IIA and IIB and in most patients with stage III congestive heart failure. Changes in plasma aldosterone concentration with relation to stages of congestive heart failure were unidirectional in both groups of examinees. There was no correlation between plasma renin activity and aldosterone concentration. The study has shown that in congestive cardiomyopathy shifts in the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system are of the same nature as in patients with congestive heart failure of another etiology.