Isolated dissection of the renal artery. A rare cause of arterial hypertension
Dard, S.; Ulmann, A.; Lacombe, M.; Grünfeld, J.P.; Michel, J.R.
La Nouvelle Presse Medicale 10(23): 1909-1911
1981
ISSN/ISBN: 0301-1518 PMID: 7017596 Document Number: 177955
During aetiological investigation of recently developed hypertension in a 31-year-old man, isolated dissection of the upper branch of the right renal artery was discovered. Injection, after sodium depletion, of saralasin, a competitive angiotensin II inhibitor, resulted in significant fall of the mean arterial pressure. During sodium depletion, the plasma renin activity was higher in the right renal artery (17.8 ng/ml/h) than in the left artery (9.4 ng/ml/h) and the infra-renal portion of the inferior vena cava (8.7 ng/ml/h). These figures suggested that surgical treatment of the dissection would have beneficial effects on blood pressure. Six months after resection of the pathological arterial segment and replacement by a graft from the internal saphenous vein, blood pressure had spontaneously returned to normal levels.