STUDIES ON "ESSENTIAL" HYPERTENSION

Abstract

Arterial hypertension1is a common phenomenon. In some instances it is associated with diseases already plentifully described and believed to cause it. Such conditions comprise disturbances of four main systems: the genitourinary, the nervous, the endocrine and the vascular. It is generally believed that when disorders of these systems are accompanied by arterial hypertension the hypertension is a dependent phenomenon, for when they are relieved it often disappears. Such varieties of secondary arterial hypertension (B, table 1) are present in only a small number of all cases in which diastolic pressure is elevated. When none of these diseases is present and arterial pressure is elevated, an independent disease called essential (or idiopathic) hypertension is regarded as responsible for the pathologic processes observed. Although the expression is an admission of ignorance, it must be understood that the condition called essential hypertension is present in over 85 per cent of all