The prevalence and significance of microalbuminuria is not well elucidated in patients with essential hypertension. In newly detected hypertension, its prevalence ranges between 23 and 37% and albuminuria is usually well correlated with the level of arterial pressure. Interestingly, albuminuria is enhanced in overweight hypertensive patients. Antihypertensive treatment has variable influence on...

The idea that a person’s genetic constitution is allimportant and that genetic knowledge is sufficiently advanced so that we can make judgments on our past or future health was called geneticism by Medawar.1 He termed geneticism as the application to the human condition of a genetic knowledge or understanding that is assumed to be very much greater than it really is. Proponents of geneticism ha...

Introduction The detection of small amounts of urinary albumin excretion (UAE), a condition known as microalbuminuria, by using sensitive immunological methods was initially used in the evaluation and management of renal damage in diabetes. In the last few years, however, it has received increased attention as a prognostic marker for cardiovascular and/or renal risk in non-diabetic subjects [1–...

INTRODUCTION Epidemiological studies have unequivocally shown that hypertension (HT)is a major cardiovascular (CV) risk factor and that a direct linear relationship exists between the severity of the blood pressure (BP) elevation and the occurrence of CV events. AREAS OF AGREEMENT AND CONTROVERSY The beneficial effects of the BP-lowering interventions have been recognized since a number of ye...

The arterial blood pressure is mainly determined by the cardiac output and the total peripheral resistance. The blood pressure and the cardiac output are measured and the total peripheral resistance is calculated by dividing mean arterial blood pressure by cardiac output. This calculation is valid only for laminar flow in rigid straight tubes, but still this calculation is currently used to est...