Study identifies hypertension patients who can benefit from the little used diuretic...( Recently a team of Alabama researche...)

Recently, a team of Alabama researchers, led by James K. Bubien Ph.D., has utilized state of the art electrophysiological technology to identify individuals with a specific salt retentive disorder causing their hypertension, and to remove any uncertainty for individual patients. The authors of "Hyperactive ENaC Identifies Hypertensive Individuals Amenable to Amiloride Therapy," are Artensie R. Carter, Zhen Hong Zhou, David A. Calhoun, and James K. Bubien, all from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL. Their findings have recently been published in the American Journal of Physiology Cell Physiology, a publication of the American Physiological Society (APS).

Background
Amiloride is a potassium-sparing diuretic (water pill), most often used to treat edema (swelling), thereby reducing the amount of fluid in the body without causing the loss of potassium. Some individuals with hypertension have benefited from this medication. However, identifying which patients will or will not benefit from this therapy has been difficult. Until now.

Inappropriate retention of salt water can lead to hypertension (high blood pressure). There is a powerful mechanism in the kidney designed to retain salt and water during times of high loss, such as heavy exercise, sustained heat and humidity, or water deprivation. If this control of this mechanism is not precise, excessive salt and water can be reabsorbed, leading to elevation of blood pressure. The high prevalence of high blood pressure that tends to run in African Americans families, and the discovery of mutations in the main protein responsible for this specific salt retaining mechanism have led researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham to consider the possibility that gene changes or other factors that regulate this process and this protein may underlie the high incidence of hypertension in African Americans. Awareness of this possibility is important because
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Contact: Donna Krupa
djkrupa1@aol.com
703-527-7357
American Physiological Society
19-Aug-2002

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