Study of the Kidney in the Bantu with Hypertension.

Hypertension is common in the Bantu of Southern Africa (Becker, 1946; Ordman, 1948; Schrire, 1958). Schrire (1958) found that diastolic pressures were higher and electrocardiographic changes of left ventricular hypertrophy greater in the Bantu than in whites, and that hypertension occurs at an earlier age in the non-white races. There has been some difference of opinion about the renal pathology in Bantu subjects with hypertension. Levin (1957) stated that in 398 consecutive necropsies in Bantus 54 showed evidence of hypertension of which 34 (63%) were essential and 18 (33%) were secondary to chronic pyelonephritis. Uys on the other hand, while claiming that 48 per cent of those with hypertension in his autopsy series had underlying renal disease nevertheless found that only 12 per cent showed pyelonephritis, whereas 29 per cent showed glomerulonephritis. This paper presents the morbid anatomical and histopathological findings in the kidneys of a series of Bantu subjects with severe hypertension.