Renal Dysfunction in Essential Hypertension

IN this issue the report by Curtis et al.¹ on the remission of essential hypertension in six patients after renal transplantation provides additional support for the view that renal dysfunction is a primary cause of the disease. Their six patients, all black, had end-stage renal disease, which appeared to have developed solely as a result of essential hypertension. The hypertension in five of the six patients persisted after removal of their kidneys and before transplantation, while they were on dialysis. After receiving kidneys from normotensive donors, in four cases unrelated to the patients, they became normotensive and have remained so.