THE RENAL BLOOD FLOW IN HYPERTENSION

Abstract

Experimental hypertension by the production of renal ischemia¹suggests the possibility that the same abnormality underlies the mechanism of human hypertension. Smith and his associates²examined patients with essential hypertension by means of the diodrast clearance test³and reported a reduction in the renal blood flow. However, Chesley and his associates,⁴employing the same method of determining the renal blood flow, reported that the hypertension found in women suffering from toxemia of pregnancy was not associated with a reduction in renal blood flow, and they were not ableto detect a diminution in renal blood flow in all cases of essential hypertension. Thus there are as yet a relative paucity of information and a lack of complete uniformity in the reports available concerning the relationship of renal blood flow to clinical hypertension. It appeared possible to elucidate this relationship further by means of a study which