Relationship between glomerular filtration rate and tubular reabsorption of sodium in patients with unilateral renal artery stenosis. The role of the renal prostaglandins.

In patients with renovascular hypertension, a significant decrease in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and in renal plasma flow (RPF) in the stenotic kidney was accompanied by a significant homolateral decrease in extraction of PAH(EPAH) and in net tubular reabsorption of sodium (RNa). There was a highly significant correlation between differences in RNa and differences in either GFR or RPF, while no correlation between differences in RNa and in EPAH was noted. It is suggested that the nature of the relationship between GFR and RNa is essentially the same in unilateral renal artery stenosis in man, as in acute constriction of the renal artery or the aorta in the experimental animal.