Role of aldosterone in potassium secretion in chronic renal failure associated with hypertension (transtubular potassium gradient)

: Aldosterone protects against hyperkalemia in disorders with reduced number of over-working nephrons. It is not clear however, whether diminished aldosterone production or aldosterone resistance is responsible for the hyperkalemia in chronic renal failure. The importance of this question is underlined by the fact that antihypertensive drugs often reduce aldosterone level. Therefore we investigated the distal tubular potassium "driving force" (transtubular potassium gradient) in 9 patients with chronic renal failure accompanied by hypertension and compared it to the results obtained in 10 healthy persons. Glomerular filtration rate was 15.77 +/- 4.88 ml/min in the chronic renal patients. Serum potassium was normal in 3 of 9 patients, the average 4.88 +/- 0.16 mmol/l, higher than in healthy persons 4.27 +/- 0.09 mmol/l (p < 0.001). Nevertheless the transtubular potassium gradient was lower in patients (3.52 +/- 0.32) comparing to healthy persons (7.25 +/- 0.57, p < 0.001). The patients' plasma aldosterone was much higher than normal. The reduced tubular potassium secretion-decreased "driving force" --suggested to aldosterone resistance. We conclude that the renal tubules' aldosterone resistance is not an exceptional but rather frequent feature in chronic renal failure which should be considered when administering antihypertensive drugs.