essential hypertension

essential hypertension

n.

Hypertension without known cause or preexisting renal disease.

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essential hypertension,

an elevated systemic arterial pressure for which no cause can be found. It is often the only significant clinical finding. Individuals with elevated blood pressure are at risk for cardiovascular disease. In examining patients with essential hypertension, clinicians consider the complex mechanisms that control blood pressure, such as the arterial baroreflex, body fluid regulators, the renin-angiotensin system, and vascular autoregulation. Also called primary hypertension. See also benign hypertension, malignant hypertension.

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hypertension

(hī´purten´shn) (high blood pressure),
n an abnormal elevation of systolic and/or diastolic arterial pressure. Systolic level is generally related to emotional stress, sclerosis of the aorta and large arteries, or aortic insufficiency. Diastolic level may result from obscure causes (essential), renal disease, or endocrine disorders. See also blood pressure.

hypertension, essential,

n a type with an unknown cause.

hypertension, malignant,

n an elevated blood pressure characterized by a progressive course uncontrollable by medication.

hypertension, orthostatic,

n plummeting blood pressure that occurs upon standing up which may be accompanied by dizziness or fainting.

hypertension, portal,

n a type originating in the portal system as occurring in cirrhosis of the liver and other conditions caused by an obstruction of the portal vein.

hypertension pulmonary,

n a type resulting from pulmonary or cardiac disease such as fibrosis of the lung or mitral stenosis.

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essential hypertension

Primary HTN, A condition comprising 90% of all cases of HTN; EH is associated with impaired endothelium-mediated vasodilation, which may play an important role in functional defects of resistance vessels. See Goldblatt kidney, Hypertension, Pheochromocytoma.