[Use of prostenon in the treatment of severe and malignant forms of hypertension].

Forty-five patients with high arterial hypertension (AH) refractory to hypotensive therapy were treated with 3 or 4 prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) infusions (Prostenon). Twenty-two of those had the malignant AH syndrome. The hypotensive effect of prostenon was most pronounced in patients with essential hypertension, less marked in those with chronic glomerulonephritis and pyelonephritis and virtually nonexistent in cases of renovascular hypertension. It persisted until the discharge in most patients, and for several months in some. In severe AH, prostenon improved blood supply to the brain, kidneys and, less notably, the limbs, normalized venous dilatability and the cardiac index, brought down total peripheral resistance, particularly in cases where pretreatment values had been high, reduced platelet aggregation 1.8-fold, and contributed to reverse development of eyeground changes in some patients with malignant AH syndrome.