[Diagnosis of latent forms of symptomatic arterial hypertension in young patients]

A study of 174 patients has established that renal biopsy is of principal value for differential diagnosis in 70 per cent of cases where the origin of high and stable arterial hypertension of young patients is difficult to establish, and the results of a preliminary investigation fail to suggest a reliable diagnosis. In 73 per cent of the patients with the given clinical symptoms, arterial hypertension was symptomatic and associated with latent renal disease. Morphological investigation of biopsy specimens established the nature of the process resulting in the development of arterial hypertension as well as its pattern and activity in the absence of pathognomonic clinical and laboratory signs.