Plasma atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), cyclic guanosine monophosphate (GMP) and renin activity (PRA) were measured in 13 patients with mitral stenosis 24 h before and 48 h after balloon valvotomy resulting in a fall in LA pressure from 23.4 +/- 2.2 to 10.5 +/- 0.8 mmHg (P less than 0.01). Before treatment, plasma ANP was higher during ambulation (128.1 +/- 18.5 pg ml-1) than in the supine posture (93.3 +/- 15.0 pg ml-1; P less than 0.01) and did not diminish after return to the erect posture (86.4 +/- 14.1 pg ml-1). A physiological response was restored after valvotomy with ANP plasma levels of 49.2 +/- 7.8 pg ml-1 in the initial ambulant period, 63.1 +/- 12.6 pg ml-1 in the supine posture and 44.6 +/- 8.7 pg ml-1 in the final erect posture. Postural variations of cyclic GMP were parallel to those of ANP. In contrast, LA hypertension did not abolish PRA postural response. During the three successive periods of ambulation, supine posture and erect posture PRA was 5.4 +/- 1.0, 2.8 +/- 0.6 and 5.5 +/- 1.2 ng h-1 ml-1, respectively, before treatment, whereas after treatment the values measured were 10.3 +/- 2.9, 2.3 +/- 0.7 and 7.0 +/- 2.5 ng h-1 ml-1 respectively. Variations of plasma ANP, cyclic GMP and PRA in response to postural changes were also studied in 10 healthy volunteers and in 12 uraemic patients with high plasma ANP.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)