Renovasculopathies of hypertension in Hispanic residents of Dallas, Texas

Background. Mean blood pressure levels (MBP) appear to rise with age slowly in the population of Mexico City and more swiftly in the U.S. in the black and white population, judging from published survey data. Some evidence su ggests that MBP rises at intermediate rates in Hispanics in the U.S. Method. This question is explored here in two ways, by review of published survey data and by a novel approach that uses renal tissues obtained from f orensic autopsies to estimate MBP, Past studies have revealed good agreemen t between the two methods of estimating MBP. Results. Good agreement is again observed from the results of this study. R esults from both methods agree that MBP is much lower at all ages in Mexica n men and women than in blacks and whites in the U.S, Both methods also agr ee that Hispanics in the U.S. demonstrate an intermediate rise in MBP. A sp eculative first look at a small sample of U.S. Hispanics suggests that MBP rates of recent immigrants tend to resemble those of Mexico, while MBP leve ls of migrants of long-term residence resemble the native-born U.S. populat ions. Conclusions. The findings underscore the need for definitive testing to con firm if Mexicans who relocate to the U.S, may acquire an acceleration of th e renovasculopathies, and of the lifelong progression toward hypertension t hat this implies. (C) 1999 IMSS. Published by Elsevier Science Inc.