Plasma atrial natriuretic factor concentration in a heart-lung transplant recipient.

Plasma concentration of atrial natriuretic factor, a polypeptide secreted by the heart, was measured in a heart-lung transplant recipient before operation and for 8 days after operation, until the patient died. Plasma atrial natriuretic factor level decreased in combination with the transplantation; after transplantation the peptide level varied within a wide range, correlating with diastolic pulmonary artery pressure (r = 0.93, p less than 0.01). The physiologic atrial natriuretic factor response to changes in right ventricular afterload thus seems to be preserved in the denervated heart.