Hypertension in Radiation Nephritis

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Abstract
A patient received intensive radiation to the right renal area for abdominal Hodgkin's disease and approximately ten years later severe hypertension developed. The presence of radiation nephritis with a severely shrunken right kidney was demonstrated and this was accompanied by a substantial increase in renin activity from the right kidney. Treatment with propranolol hydrochloride temporarily lowered the blood pressure and peripheral renin activity levels. Subsequent right nephrectomy resulted in a decrease in renin activity and a reversal of the hypertension. The data implicate a renin angiotensin mechanism as a probable cause of hypertension in radiation nephritis. (Arch Intern Med 137:848-851, 1977)