Influence of body weight on plasma catecholamine patterns in middle-aged, normotensive men.

To study the influence of body weight on plasma catecholamine patterns, 34 healthy, normotensive men aged 51 +/- 1 years were stratified into lean (n = 22) and overweight (n = 12) subjects according to Thomas' body mass index. No significant differences on supine arterial and venous catecholamines or standing venous adrenaline and dopamine appeared. However, the lean men had an increased orthostatic venous noradrenaline response (477 +/- 38 ng/l) compared to the overweight (319 +/- 46 ng/l, P less than 0.02). The present findings may indicate an inverse relationship between the sympathetic noradrenergic responsiveness and body weight in healthy, normotensive men while no differences were found in basal catecholamine levels.