Renal Pressor Substances in the Diagnosis of Hypertension

Excerpt

Thirty years ago, Goldblatt, Lynch, Hanzal, and Summerville (1) produced hypertension in animals by partial occlusion of one or both renal arteries. Isolated reports of patients cured of hypertension by removal of one diseased kidney soon followed. Unfortunately, the results of nephrectomy were too often disappointing and unpredictable. Improvement of angiographic techniques and introduction of the split renal function test improved the selection of patients who responded favorably to surgery. These patients usually had renal vascular lesions. Although the incidence of hypertension due to unilateral renal disease is not known, it is certainly a more common cause of remediable hypertension