Hypertension and end-stage renal failure in tropical Africa

We report clinical data and autopsy renal histology in 78 patients who died from chronic renal failure in Ghana. There were 78 patients, 54 male and 24 female, and the majority were aged between 20 and 50 years. The major causes of chronic renal failure were hypertensive renal damage (38 patients) and chronic glomerulonephritis (33 patients). The most common glomerular lesion leading to end-stage renal failure was a focal segmental sclerosing glomerulonephritis. It is possible that some of these segmental sclerosing glomerular lesions were secondary to glomerular hyperfiltration caused by reduced renal mass from hypertension-induced glomerular ischaemia. A public health programme leading to better awareness of the importance of detecting hypertension and having this treated could be a major contribution to reducing by at least half the number of deaths from renal failure reported here.