Aim of this work is to study calcium homeostasis in essential hypertension through evaluation of calciotropic
hormones and their relations to renin level. Thirty hyper tensive patients and ten normal volunteer persons were in
cluded in this study, patients and control were subjected to full medical history and examination, complete urine ex
amination, fasting blood sugar, blood urea nitrogen, com plete blood picture, abdominal ultrasonography, serum
creatinine, serum potassium, serum sodium, serum calcium, 24 hours urinary calcium, serum 1,25 dihydroxy vi
tamin D, serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) and plasmarenin activity. The results of this work showed no signifi
cant differences between the mean serum calcium values in the hypertensive group and the control group, a signifi
cant elevation of 24 hours urinary calciumin the hyperten sive group when compared to the control group and a sig
nificant elevation of the mean value of serum 1,25 (OH)2D and serumPTH in the hypertensive group when compared
to the control group. No correlations were observed among serum PTH, serum 1,25 (OH)2D and urinary calcium in
the hypertensive group. From this study we came to conclusion that hypercalciuria is a major derangement of cal
cium metabolism in patients with essential hypertension. The elevated PTH and 1,25 (OH)2D might be a compensa
tory response to restore calcium balance to normal, these calciotropic hormones directly facilitate calcium transport
intracellaurly, intracellular calcium accumulation and hence increase cytosolic free Ca^+ which is crucial for
vascular contractile activity and hence elevation of blood pressure. |
