Hypertension as a cause of end-stage renal failure in South Africa.

We reviewed the data of 3,632 patients with end-stage renal failure entered into the South African Dialysis and Transplantation Registry over a six-year period. The male to female ratio was 1.4:1. Of these patients, 48.8% were white, 26.2% black, 17.6% coloured and 7.4% Asian. Essential hypertension was the cause of end-stage renal failure in 15.9% of patients. Malignant hypertension was the diagnosis in 57% of the essential hypertensives. Hypertension was responsible for 34.6% of end-stage renal failure in blacks, 20.9% in coloureds, 4.3% in whites and 13.8% in Asians. In the age group 30-39 years, 37.4% of patients with malignant hypertension commenced dialysis, while 28.4% and 28.8% of benign hypertensives commenced dialysis in the 30-39 and 40-49 age groups, respectively. The survival at 36 and 72 months was the same whether hypertension was the cause of end-stage renal failure or not, and whether the hypertension was malignant or benign. Cardiac causes were responsible for most of the deaths. The percentage of deaths from cardiac causes was similar in patients with renal failure from essential hypertension and other causes (33.2% and 29.3% respectively). Hypertension is the commonest cause of end-stage renal failure in black South Africans and the most common preventable cause of end-stage kidney disease in the country.