Platelet Cytosolic Free Calcium and Echocardiographic Left Ventricular Mass in Essential Hypertension and Primary Hyperparathyroidism

Force development in cardiac and vascular muscle is directly related to the concentration of calcium ions in the cytosol. Sustained hypertension is predominantly maintained by an increase in total peripheral resistance and attention has therefore focused on the possibility that changes in intracellular calcium in myocytes of resistance vessels are important in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension in man. Apart from vascular tone, free calcium in cells also stimulates cell proliferation and growth and increased concentrations of calcium ions in cardiac and vascular smooth muscle could mediate the hypertrophy that characteristically occurs in response to an increase in wall tension