1 From the Department of Medicine A, and the Laboratory for Clinical Research of the Hadassah Hebrew University Hospital and Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.
The increased diuretic and natriuretic response of hypertensive patients to an intravenous salt load was modified toward normal by a deconditioning procedure which consisted in repeated exposure to the external situation of the test without, however, infusing any fluid into the vein. After this deconditioning, ratios between amounts of urine and sodium excreted in the first and the second 90-minute period of the test and the total 3-hour quantity of urine excreted were significantly reduced, but blood pressure was not changed. The response of normotensive patients to the same deconditioning was modified in the same direction but to a much smaller extent. It is suggested that the increased diuretic and natriuretic responses of hypertensive patients to an intravenous salt load are similar to the hyperreactive pressor and diuretic responses of these patients when exposed to stimuli that seem threatening to them, and that these responses are caused (at least in part) by hyperreactivity of the central nervous system to the external situation of the test.
© 1967 American Heart Association, Inc.
Effect of a Simple Deconditioning Procedure on the Diuretic and Natriuretic Response of Hypertensive Patients to a Hypertonic Salt Load
Key Words: Conditional reflexes • Diuresis • Emotions