Headache associated with hypertension from the internist's and neurologist's point of view
Neu, I.
Münchener Medizinische Wochenschrift 117(49): 1943-1946
1975
ISSN/ISBN: 0341-3098 PMID: 813125 Document Number: 90281
In industrial countries the symptoms "headache" has an incidence of about 10%, and hypertension between 20 and 25%. Both terms are summary and may be pointers to and warning signals of the most varied disease processes. While, in malignant hypertensions, and pheochromocytoma, headache is a cardinal symptom, its causal connection with permanently raised blood pressure in the "benign" forms is viewed with scepticism. The observation that hypertensives frequently complain of headaches with a maximum intensity in the early hours of the morning is connected with the fall in blood pressure with accumulation of CO2 in shallow breathing. Headache as a symptom characteristic of hypertension is frequently only facultative in nature and must be classified among the series of symptoms of sequelae. But it offers a sufficient reason to institute a selective examination programme, especially as hypertension is still the most common cause of death even today.