Plasma renin activity in renal veins of renovascular patients.

PRA was simultaneously measured in both renal veins and in a peripheral vein of patients with essential (6) and renovascular (37) hypertension. In renovascular patients suppression or renin secretion from the contralateral kidney was always observed: otherwise in patients with essential hypertension both kidneys contribute to peripheral PRA. The suppression of renin secretion from the ischemic kidney either by nephrectomy or by revascularization, joins with normalization either of peripheral PRA or of blood pressure. This finding points to the role of the renin-angiotensin system in the genesis of human renovascular hypertension.