Incidental fibromuscular dysplasia in potential renal donors: long-term clinical follow-up.

The clinical natural history of renal arterial fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) in patients with normal blood pressure is unknown, to the authors' knowledge. The authors reviewed the results of 1,862 renal angiograms obtained in potential renal donors. FMD was present in 71 patients (3.8%). The average age at which FMD was discovered was 50.8 years. Seventy-five percent of the patients with FMD were female. Of 30 patients who did not undergo nephrectomy, eight (26.6%) developed hypertension over a mean followup interval of 7.5 years. Of 19 patients who underwent nephrectomy, despite the presence of FMD, five (26.3%) developed hypertension over a mean follow-up interval of 4.4 years. In comparison, three subjects (6.1%) (from a randomized control group of 49 age- and sex-matched healthy individuals) developed hypertension over a mean follow-up period of 7.1 years. The authors conclude that asymptomatic middle-aged individuals with renal FMD develop hypertension at a rate greater than that of age-matched control subjects with normal blood pressure.