Atrial natriuretic factor influences renal diurnal rhythm in essential hypertension.

We investigated in six patients with essential hypertension the effect of a low dose atrial natriuretic factor infusion for 5 days on the diurnal rhythm of renal electrolyte excretion. Atrial natriuretic factor infusion increased the net excretion of sodium and caused a delay in its time of maximal diurnal urinary excretion. Similarly, atrial natriuretic factor caused an increase in the net excretion of chloride, calcium, and magnesium and also changed the diurnal rhythms of these electrolytes. In contrast, atrial natriuretic factor did not change the net excretion of potassium, phosphate, and uric acid, nor did atrial natriuretic factor change the diurnal rhythms of these solutes. During baseline, the time points of maximal urinary excretion of sodium and potassium overlapped, whereas atrial natriuretic factor infusion caused sodium excretion to peak 2.2 +/- 0.3 hours (p less than 0.02) after the potassium excretion peak. During baseline, the time of maximal urinary excretion of sodium did not correlate with the time of highest blood pressure, whereas it correlated negatively with mean plasma aldosterone concentration. In contrast, during atrial natriuretic factor infusion the time of maximal urinary excretion of sodium correlated positively with the time of highest blood pressure, whereas it did not correlate with mean plasma aldosterone concentration. These data suggest that atrial natriuretic factor is involved with the diurnal rhythm of the urinary excretion of sodium and that atrial natriuretic factor-induced natriuresis is mediated in part by blood pressure and plasma aldosterone.