Hypertension in adult Africans in Uganda

Abstract

1. 1) Forty-six African patients in Uganda who were suffering from hypertension have been studied. There were 34 males and 12 females aged from 17 to 75 years. Only 16 were over the age of 40. 2. 2) Hypertension was secondary to renal disease in 27 cases, and was primary or “essential” in 14. Five cases were unclassified. Secondary hypertension was present in nearly all subjects below 40 years of age and was secondary to glomerulo-nephritis (16 cases) pyelonephritis (nine cases) or primary renal amyloidosis (two cases). The prognosis was bad, and 11 of the subjects died, usually from cardio-renal failure. 3. 3) Essential hypertension was present in 14 cases and was the commonest cause of hypertension at over 40 years of age. Some of these patients complained only of headache and palpitation and in these the prognosis may have been fairly good. Others presented in heart failure or as a result of a cerebral vascular accident.