Urinary Excretion Of Aquaporin-2 Water Channel Protein In Patients With Congestive Heart Failure

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the changes of urinary concentrations of aquaporin-2 (AQP-2) water channel protein and the effects of Benazepril on AQP-2 in patients with congestive heart failure.Methods: Urinary AQP-2 concentrations of 35 patients with congestive heart failure (group A and group B) and 15 controls patients without congestive heart failure (group C ) were detected by Western blot on the second morning during our hospitalization. According to that whether they took Angiotensin-converting Enzyme Inhibitors (ACEI) and/or Angiotensin receptor antagonists (ARB) for more than 2 weeks or not, the patients with congestive heart failure were divided into two groups, namely group B and group A. Then group A was randomly subdivided into subgroup A1 and A2. The patients in subgroup A1 took 5mg of Benazepril each day, and the patients in subgroup A2 10mg of Benazepril each day. Two patients of subgroup A2 discontinued the treatment because they could not tolerate Benazepril treatment. Two weeks later, urinary AQP-2 concentrations of inpatients with congestive heart failure were detected again.Results: 1.The concentrations of urinary AQP-2 on the 2nd day during the hospitalization in group A, B and C were 372.68±33.68, 334.79±31.63 and 63.62±9.85 , respectively. The concentrations of urinary AQP-2 in patients with congestive heart failure were higher than those in the controls (p<0.01). 2. There were no differences in plasma sodium, plasma potassium, plasma Chlorine, plasma Albumin, age, gender, disease course and the severity of heat failure, and other treatments except for ACEI and/or ARB between group A and B, but the concentrations of urinary AQP-2 in group B were lower than those in group A (p<0.05). 3. After treatment for 2 weeks, the heart functions of all patients...