The distribution of plasma renin concentration and its characteristics in patients with hypertension

Objective To explore the distribution characteristics of plasma renin concentration in patients with hypertension and the possibly methodological problems. Methods The subjects including 361 patients with hypertension[male: 184 cases, average age: (45.16±13.74)years old; female: 177 cases, average age: (51.04±12.68) years old]and 187 apparent healthy individuals[male: 92 cases, average age: (46.74±13.17)years old; female: 95 cases, average age: (47.33±13.18) years old]were recruited from Departments of Healthy Check-up and outpatients for hypertension in Tangshan Gongren Hospital. The plasma renin concentration was detected by chemiluminescence-Immunoassay. Results The plasma renin concentration shows log-transformed normal distribution both in healthy group and hypertension group. The range of plasma renin concentration in hypertension group is from 0.05 to 574.07 pg/ml, while that in apparent healthy group is from 3.24 to 120.40 pg/ml. The plasma renin concentration in both groups is higher in male than female (Hypertension t=2.19, P=0.029; Healthy people t=2.85, P=0.005). The average concentration of plasma renin in hypertension group is slightly higher, and the width of density distribution is larger in comparison with healthy group although there is no significant difference between them. However, the percentage of plasma renin abnormality was 26.59% (96/361) in hypertension group with 13.85%(50/361)of low renin subtype and 12.74%(46/361)of high renin subtype. Conclusions The plasma renin concentration measured by Chemiluminescence-Immunoassay can be used as an effective tool for hypertension screening.(Chin J Lab Med, 2017, 40: 447-450) Key words: Hypertension; Renin; Luminescent measurements