Secondary hypertension in a medical ward

The prevalence of secondary hypertension was evaluated by investigating 400 consecutive patients with arterial hypertension in a medical ward. They were classified into four groups according to the case history. Group A: 104 subjects with therapy-resistant hypertension, group B: 247 patients who had another concomitant disease as the primary reason for admission, group C: 34 patients referred to the ward for basic investigation due to recently diagnosed hypertension, group D: 15 patients with unwanted hypertension was 15.5% in the entire series, and 14.4%, 18.6%, 2.9% and 0% in groups A - D, respectively. Ten patients (2.5%) were operated on, nine of them from group A and one from group B. The findings demonstrate the importance of a careful examination of patients with therapy-resistant hypertension, since they might include subjects whose hypertension can be treated by surgery.