Mechanisms to explain chronic elevation of blood pressure, hypertension, have been much debated and reviewed. The development ideas can be traced back to the early 19th century, in observations by Bright of an association between high blood pressure and albuminuria. In the more recent past attention has shifted to the cardiovascular consequences of elevated blood pressure, This association has repeatedly been confirmed and is well quantified by epidemio'iogists in large longitudinal observational studies, as summarized in several metaM analyses. Although age standardized mortality rates from cardiovascular disease are declining in many industrialized countries, mortality and morbidity from cardiovascular disease remain a major public health problem. Part of the problem might be related to early effects on the cardiovascular system of a gradually rising blood pressure starting early in life. There is therefore much interest in the various mechanisms that regulate blood pressure and might give rise to hypertension. In particulal' studies on the early phase of primary hypertension, before the system changes in response to sustained elevations in pressure, might indicate the mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of primary hypertension.This perspective forms the background of The Dutch Hypertension and Offspring Study, and of this thesis.

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Netherlands Heart Foundation, Rotterdam Medical Research Foundation (ROMERES)
Erasmus University Rotterdam
hdl.handle.net/1765/23902
Erasmus MC: University Medical Center Rotterdam

van Hooft, I. M. S. (1994, November 16). The Dutch hypertension and offspring study : an epidemiological approach to the early pathogenesis of primary hypertension . Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/23902