Asymmetric Dimethylarginine, L-Arginine, and Endothelial Dysfunction in Essential Hypertension
Francesco Perticone, MD*,*,
Angela Sciacqua, MD*,
Raffaele Maio, MD*,
Maria Perticone, MD*,
Renke Maas, MD ,
Rainer H. Boger, MD,
Giuseppe Tripepi, Stat Tech ,
Giorgio Sesti, MD* and
Carmine Zoccali, MD
* Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases Unit, Department of Medicina Sperimentale e Clinica "G. Salvatore," University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy
Clinical Pharmacology Unit, Department of Pharmacology, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany
CNR-IBIM, National Research Council-Institute of Biomedicine, Clinical Epidemiology and Physiopathology of Renal Diseases and Hypertension, Reggio Calabria, Italy
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Figure 1 Relationship between L-arginine (L-Arg) and asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) in both normotensive subjects (NTs) (open circles) and hypertensive patients (HTs) (solid circles). In the whole population (r = 0.626; p < 0.0001) and in the HT group (r = 0.545; p < 0.001), the two covariates resulted linearly correlated; no relationship was found in the NT group.
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Figure 2 Forearm blood flow (FBF) increase during infusion of acetylcholine (ACh). As shown, ACh-stimulated FBF was significantly reduced in hypertensive subjects (HTs) in comparison to normotensive control (NTs) subjects. Intra-arterial coinfusion of L-arginine (L-Arg) induced a further significant enhancement in ACh-stimulated vasodilation in HT patients.
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Figure 3 In this figure the correlation between asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) levels and the peak increase in acetylcholine-stimulated forearm blood flow is reported in hypertensive patients.
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