Blood-cadmium levels in normotensive and untreated hypertensive humans.

Administration of cadmium to laboratory animals causes hypertension. Necropsy specimens of the liver and kidneys of human patients who had had hypertension were previously reported as showing elevated cadmium concentrations. In the present study living normal humans were found to have a blood-cadmium level of 3-4 +/- 0-5 ng/ml, while a matched group of living untreated hypertensive humans had a blood-cadmium of 11-1 +/- 1-5 ng/ml. All of the normal subjects had blood-cadmium levels below 8-0 ng/ml, while 13 of the 17 hypertensive patients had blood-cadmium levels over 8-0 ng/ml.