ABSTRACT
This chapter on renovascular hypertension represents an effort to bring together the wide variety of imaging approaches that have been used in studying hypertension and the kidney. The original study that demonstrated a definite relation between the kidney and the regulation of blood pressure was reported in 1898 by Tigerstead and Bergman1
(see Table 14.1) when they demonstrated that an extract of the kidney injected into experimental animals would cause an elevation of the blood pressure. The substance was named renin because of its origin. A wide variety of experiments were conducted during the following years in an effort to clearly establish that manipulation of the kidney could cause high blood pressure. These studies included partial nephrectomy, infection of the kidney and wrapping the kidney in cellophane among others.2 The first investigator to show that changes in renal blood flow could affect the blood pressure was Harry Goldblatt, who reported his findings in 1934.3
Subsequently, the first human case in which it was demonstrated that nephrectomy resulted in a return of blood pressure to normal was published in 1938 by Leadbetter.4
