Plasma renin activity

Plasma renin activity (PRA), also known as the renin (active) assay or random plasma renin, is a measure of the activity of the plasma enzyme renin, which plays a major role in the body's regulation of blood pressure, thirst, and urine output. PRA is sometimes measured, specially in case of certain diseases which present with hypertension or hypotension. PRA is also raised in certain tumors. A PRA measurement may be compared to a plasma aldosterone concentration as an aldosterone-to-renin ratio.

Measurement is done from a sample of venous blood using immunological measuring mechanisms like ELISA, RIA, etc. Often these are done by automated machines to minimize human error.

These values are quite variable in a normal person. Variation occur with the following:

Reference ranges for blood tests of plasma renin activity can be given both in mass and in international units (μIU/mL or equivalently mIU/L, improperly shown as μU/mL or U/L, confusing mcU/mL used where Greek μ not available), with the former being roughly convertible to the latter by multiplying with 11.2. The following table gives the lower limit (2.5th percentile) and upper limit (97.5th percentile) for plasma renin activity by mass and MCU, with different values owing to various factors of variability of reference ranges:

Please go through the physiology of renin and of the renin-angiotensin system to understand why the following occur.

Higher-than-normal levels may indicate:

Lower-than-normal levels may indicate:

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