An in-vivo study of renal cadmium and hypertension.

A comparative study of renal cadmium burdens in a group of thirty hypertensive patients undergoing treatment and in a group of thirty matched controls is reported, both groups being volunteers selected from a non-occupationally exposed population. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible involvement of cadmium in the aetiology of hypertension at the chronic low levels of environmental exposure. Renal cadmium levels were measured in vivo, using the technique of partial-body neutron activation analysis. The results showed that the mean renal cadmium level in the hypertensive group [3.3 mg (SD 2.3)], was not significantly different from that [4.4 mg (SD 2.7)], in the normotensive group. Whether the level in the hypertensives depends on the treatment is open to question and will be the subject of further investigation. In addition, the results confirm that kidney cadmium levels are elevated in smokers.