Renovasculopathies of Hypertension in Hispanic Residents of Dallas, Texas

Abstract

Background Mean blood pressure levels (MBP) appear to rise with age slowly in the population of Mexico City and more swiftly in the U.S. in the black and white population, judging from published survey data. Some evidence suggests that MBP rises at intermediate rates in Hispanics in the U.S. Method This question is explored here in two ways, by review of published survey data and by a novel approach that uses renal tissues obtained from forensic autopsies to estimate MBP. Past studies have revealed good agreement between the two methods of estimating MBP. Results Good agreement is again observed from the results of this study. Results from both methods agree that MBP is much lower at all ages in Mexican men and women than in blacks and whites in the U.S. Both methods also agree that Hispanics in the U.S. demonstrate an intermediate rise in MBP. A speculative first look at a small sample of U.S. Hispanics suggests that MBP rates of recent immigrants tend to resemble those of Mexico, while MBP levels of migrants of long-term residence resemble the native-born U.S. populations. Conclusions The findings underscore the need for definitive testing to confirm if Mexicans who relocate to the U.S. may acquire an acceleration of the renovasculopathies, and of the lifelong progression toward hypertension that this implies.