ABSTRACT
Objective: To investigate the relationship between serum HGF levels and clinical severity of essential hypertension (EH). Methods: The serum HGF concentrations of 44 patients with EH were measur ed by ELISA. Results: The serum HGF levels in patients with EH w ere higher than that in control. Furthermore, the serum HGF levels of EH patient s with coronary atherosclerosis (CAS) were significantly higher than those of EH patients without CAS ［(920.8±250.0） pg/ml vs （747.9±132.1） pg/ml, P <0.01］ or control ［（643.8±98.2） pg/ml, P<0.01)］.The changes of HGF l evel were correlated with the clinical courses (r=0.63, P<0.01) and stag es (r=0.69, P<0.01) of hypertension. Conclusion: HGF may be considered as a new index for the severity of hypertension and an useful bio chemical parameter for estimating the development of atherosclerosis.