Hypertension in patients with renal artery stenosis

Renal artery stenosis (RAS) is often present in patients with severe hypertension and atherosclerotic vascular disease. In this setting it is important to screen patients for renovascular disease, e. g. with Duplex-ultrasound, CT-or MR-angiography. The challenge of treating these patients is to find the evidence proving that the RAS is responsible for hypertension and/or renal dysfunction. Measurement of the intra-arterial pressure gradient is necessary in order to determine hemodynamic relevance. On the other side, in these patients hypertension is often of primary and/or renoparenchymatous origin and is aggravated by a renovascular disease. This explains why hypertension cannot be cured even if a high grade stenosis has been removed. In addition, thromb- and cholesterol-embolic material is often mobilized during an invasive procedure and leads to renaparenchymatous ischemia which sustains hypertension after intervention. An individual evaluation of profit versus risk is important for the decision for or against an invasive procedure, especially since there is no sufficient evidence for a decrease of mortality after interventions of RAS. The optimal conservative treatment, including the treatment of atherosclerotic risk factors is recommended.