Renal response to volume expansion in atrial-appendectomized dogs

The purpose of this study was to determine whether chronic removal of the atrial appendages alters the renal response to volume expansion (VE) in anesthetized dogs. Chronic bilateral atrial appendectomy (ATX) was performed in 10 animals. Six animals served as sham-operated controls (S). The animals were studied 10-14 days after chronic surgery. The protocol consisted of a 20-min control period followed by isochemic VE (20%) and 120 min of post-VE measurements. The dogs were studied a second time, 2 wk later, after acute bilateral cervical vagotomy. Results from the vagi-intact study showed that VE caused a diuresis, natriuresis, and increase in fractional sodium excretion in ATX that did not differ from the response observed in S. VE also caused equivalent increases in central venous and mean arterial pressures in S and ATX. Atrial appendectomy, however, failed to significantly attenuate the increase in arterial natriuretic factor (ANF) after VE. Plasma ANF increased from 27.2 ± 4.8 to 47.0 ± 7.3 pg/ml in ATX and from 27.2 ± 7.8 to 59.0 ± 17.9 pg/ml in S. After vagotomy, VE caused transient increases in urine flow and sodium excretion. The changes in central venous and mean arterial pressure were not different from the vagi-intact study and vagotomy did not affect the increase in ANF after VE. Circulating ANF levels increased from 26.4 ± 5.5 to 75.0 ± 14.0 pg/ml in ATX and from 28.1 ± 5.7 to 73.0 ± 22.6 pg/ml in S. These results demonstrate that, in the dog, bilateral ATX does not alter the renal response to volume expansion or attenuate the increase in ANF. In addition, these results show that vagal pathways are not required for the release of ANF and that vagotomy fails to uncover any effect of atrial appendectomy on renal function.