An accelerated hypertension with neither malignant nephrosclerosis nor elevation of plasma renin activity

A case of accelerated hypertension, which was unique in a resistance to an angiotensin antagonist, and a lack of the elevation of plasma renin activity (PRA) is reported. Non-elevated PRA was coincided with non-malignant nephrosclerosis in renal histology. The acceleration was attributed to the neurological cause i.e., cerebral hemorrhage in the right hypothalamus which extended to the ventricle and subarachnoid space. The case therefore clinically seemed malignant-like, but it was not malignant hypertension in the sense of Volhard's classical definition. This does not conflict with the usefulness of the determination of PRA in the diagnosis of malignant hypertension with nephrosclerosis.