Introduction: Plasma renin level is an important marker of hypertension in the young adults. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of increased levels of plasmatic renin in the pathogenesis of hypertension in young adults and to highlight the main conditions underlying the pathogenesis of hypertension in young people in these circumstances.
Patients and methods: The group of patients taking part in the study was made of 121 young hypertensive adults (selected from a group of 321 young hypertensive adults), with ages between 18 and 35 years, with elevated blood pressure exceeding 140/90 mmHg in at least three repeated measurements at intervals of one week to exclude white coat phenomenon, or had a blood pressure value greater than 170/100 mmHg at the first measurement and increased plasma renin levels above 4.3 ng/mL.
Results and discussion: Of the 121 young hypertensive patients with increased plasma renin levels, 49 were cases of renal artery stenosis representing 40.50% (p<0.001), eight cases were represented by small unilateral kidneys representing 6.61% (p<0.001), renal cell carcinoma (previously known as "hypernephron" - Grawitz tumor) was responsible for the younger group of patients studied (four cases) representing 3.30% (p<0.001) of the cases of hypertension in the young adults, and 60 cases representing 49.59% were represented by pheochromocytoma.
Conclusions: The results show the role of plasma renin dosing as being particularly important in the pathogenesis of secondary hypertension in young adults.