Hypertension - Polycystic Kidney Disease

Hypertension is one of the early symptoms of adult PKD. Even before the kidney functions begin to decline, patients will have hypertension. There are 50% patients have blood pressure higher than 140/90mmHg when their kidney functions are still normal and nearly all the patients have high blood pressure among end stage renal disease patients. The blood pressure is proportional to the size of the kidneys and the number of the cysts. Blood pressure will also increase along with age.

Research has found that high blood pressure is mainly related to the hyperfunction of the renin-angiotensin system. In addition, the activity of the aldosterone is high. The oppression of the cysts to renal intrinsic cells and tissues will cause hypoxia, ischemia and low perfusion in the kidneys and stimulate more secretion of renin and cause blood pressure to increase.

If not treated well, long term high blood pressure will in turn worsen the illness condition. The renal fibrosis will be worse and serum creatinine will increase and patients will fall into a vicious circle and finally develop into renal failure. The key point of treating hypertension in PKD is to dilate the blood vessels and improve blood circulation in the whole body so as to block renal fibrosis.