What is Nephrosclerosis?

Hypertensive nephropathy (or "hypertensive nephrosclerosis", or "Hypertensive kidney disease") is a medical condition referring to damage to the kidney due to chronic high blood pressure. It should be distinguished from "renovascular hypertension" (I15.0), which is a form of secondary hypertension.

In the kidneys, as a result of benign arterial hypertension, hyaline (pink, amorphous, homogeneous material) accumulates in the wall of small arteries and arterioles, producing the thickening of their walls and the narrowing of the lumina — hyaline arteriolosclerosis. Consequent ischemia will produce tubular atrophy, interstitial fibrosis, glomerular alterations (smaller glomeruli with different degrees of hyalinization - from mild to sclerosis of glomeruli) and periglomerular fibrosis. In advanced stages, kidney failure will occur. Functional nephrons have dilated tubules, often with hyaline casts in the lumens. Additional complications often associated with hypertensive nephropathy include glomerular damage resulting in protein and blood in the urine.