Pre- and peroperative evaluation and follow-up of hypertensive patients with renal artery stenosis.

The operative results after a more than 1 year follow-up were compared with pre-and peroperative investigations on 13 patients with angiographically verified renal artery stenosis. Seven patients became normotensive. Determination of plasma renin activity ratio in the renal veins and the ratio of renin release from the kidneys gave the best correlation to the operative results. Separate clearance studies are of importance if the contralateral kidney is damaged. One patient who underwent reconstruction for renal artery stenosis did not become normotensive until the arteriolosclerotic contralateral kidney was excised. Peroperative determination of mean pressure gradient, increase in renal blood flow, and resistances over the stenosis compared to that of the parenchyma also gave good correlation to the results at 1 year follow-up.