Ask a doctor on the topic of Internal medicine

kidney

March 4, 2016 | 20,00 EUR | answered by Dr. med. Ralf Berg

Hello, I have a question about my son. He is 26 and has been suffering from very high blood pressure for a long time. He recently had a CT scan of the kidneys. I will send you the results. What does he have and what needs to be done? I heard that high blood pressure could come from the kidneys. Thank you in advance.

Best regards

Dr. med. Ralf Berg

Good day,

Your question is relatively easy to answer. In fact, a narrowing of the renal arteries (renal artery stenosis) can lead to high blood pressure. This is almost the only cause where the internist cannot cure the blood pressure, but the surgeon can by removing the narrowing in the renal artery. However, this is very rare. It is a good sign that your doctor wanted to rule out this cause in this situation (young patient, long-standing high blood pressure).

However, the result is clear: your son does not have any changes in the renal arteries. The described additional arterial supply with a "second" renal artery is a variation that can occur occasionally. It is completely harmless and has no pathological significance. So, there is nothing wrong with his kidneys and nothing needs to be done there.

What needs to be done is to lower the blood pressure and existing risk factors (overweight/lack of exercise). If this is not enough, your son has the most common form of high blood pressure, essential = hereditary hypertension. This must be lowered with medications to prevent permanent damage to the blood vessels. Untreated high blood pressure over the long term greatly increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and kidney damage.

With best regards and have a nice weekend,

Dr. R. C. Berg