HYPERTENSION IN CASES OF CONGENITAL POLYCYSTIC KIDNEY

Abstract

The presence of persistent hypertension in cases of congenital polycystic kidney has been a disputed point in the literature. Various investigators¹have called attention to the high incidence of hypertension associated with this condition. In 1928, Bell and Clawson,²after a review of the literature and a study of eight cases, concluded: "The available information is strongly against the view that congenital cystic disease of the kidneys is accompanied by persistent hypertension." In 1914, Veil³studied three cases in which a definite diagnosis of polycystic kidney had been made at a clinical examination. The patients were women, aged between 42 and 50. In each case the heart was not enlarged, but the blood pressure was elevated. Veil maintained that the absence of cardiac hypertrophy was against persistent hypertension, and because there was not marked renal insufficiency, he did not think that the hypertension could be of renal origin. In a