[Hypertensive nephrosclerosis: an exhaustive diagnosis?]

Hypertensive nephrosclerosis is a much overused clinical diagnosis, largely unsubstantiated by biopsy data. It is in fact a clinical-pathological diagnosis implying a causal role of hypertension in the associated chronic kidney disease. However, such a simple, linear causality is often not obvious or easy to demonstrate. Further factors like age, Afro-American descent, genetic and immunological factors as well as dysmetabolic syndrome may contribute to the development and progression of arterionephrosclerosis independently of hypertension.