Administered dose is an important determinant of the type of hypertension produced by
angiotensin II. With chronic administration of pressor doses, there is salt and water retention
and expansion of extracellular fluid volume, and the pressure-natriuresis curve is shifted to
higher pressures. Important compensatory mechanisms, including resetting of
baroreceptors, de novo synthesis of vasodilator prostaglandins, and atrial natriuretic factor
release, are triggered by the acute rise of blood pressure. Histologic evidence for vascular …