Introduction: Hypertensive nephroangiosclerosis is a major cause of chronic kidney disease requiring dialysis. Clinical characteristics that distinguish a patient with hypertension that evolves to nephroangiosclerosis from another that keeps stable renal function are not well established because of the difficulty in ensuring that the carriers of that disease are not actually suffering from glomerulonephritis or other kidney diseases. Thus, our objective was to identify clinical or laboratory features that distinguish the patients who developed chronic renal failure from hypertension, confirmed by renal biopsy, of those who, even with arterial hypertension, did not develop nephroangiosclerosis.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective comparison of clinical and laboratory data of 15 patients with hypertensive nephroangiosclerosis confirmed by renal biopsy and 15 hypertensive patients from the outpatient clinic of the Hypertension Center, whose lack of nephroangiosclerosis was defined as absence of proteinuria. The groups were matched for age and gender.
Results: Among the evaluated variables, duration of hypertension, pulse pressure, blood glucose, uric acid, creatinine and frequency of use of diuretics and sympatholytic differed statistically between the two groups. All these variables were higher in nephroangiosclerosis patients.
Conclusion: This study links biopsy proven hypertensive nephroangiosclerosis with metabolic features, hypertension intensity and duration, corroborating the idea that primary prevention of hypertension, postponing its initiation, a more intensive hemodynamic control (when hypertension is well established) and metabolic control of these patients have the potential to prevent hypertensive nephroangiosclerosis.