Relation between potassium balance and aldosterone secretion in normal subjects and in patients with hypertensive or renal tubular disease.

The mechanisms that control the adrenal secre-tion of aldosterone are not completely understood. Recent evidence suggests that the release of renin from the kidneys with subsequent stimulation of aldosterone secretion by angiotensin may play a major role in the regulation of sodium balance (1-7). Furthermore, the secretion of renin has been linked to changes in sodium balance (8-10). Through its action on the kidneys aldosterone not only influences sodium excretion but also plays an important role in the regulation of potassium balance. Since potassium balance may change in-dependently of sodium balance, the possibility must be recognized that changes in potassium balance could also play an important role in the regulation of aldosterone secretion. Previous studies have shown that potassium administration can stimulate aldosterone secretion in the dog (11, 12), and bal-ance studies in man have indicated that changes in potassium intake exert slight effects on urinary excretion of aldosterone (13-17). For this reason and because situations exist in which hypersecretion of aldosterone occurs with-out clinical evidence to suggest marked angio-tensinemia the present study was undertaken to define in man, under conditions in which sodium intake was rigidly controlled, the character of the aldosterone response to changes in potassium balance. * Submitted for publication October 25, 1965; accepted