Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
close window
Housecall Archives
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
close window
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Complications
By Mayo Clinic staffSecondary hypertension can worsen the underlying medical condition you have that's causing your high blood pressure. If you don't receive treatment, secondary hypertension can also cause other medical conditions, such as:
- Damage to your arteries. This can result in hardening and thickening of the arteries (atherosclerosis), which can lead to a heart attack, stroke or other complications.
- Aneurysm. Increased blood pressure can cause your blood vessels to weaken and bulge, forming an aneurysm. If an aneurysm ruptures, it can be life-threatening.
- Heart failure. To pump blood against the higher pressure in your vessels, your heart muscle thickens. Eventually, the thickened muscle may have a hard time pumping enough blood to meet your body's needs, which can lead to heart failure.
- Weakened and narrowed blood vessels in your kidneys. This can prevent these organs from functioning normally.
- Thickened, narrowed or torn blood vessels in the eyes. This can result in vision loss.
- Metabolic syndrome. This syndrome is a cluster of disorders of your body's metabolism — including increased waist circumference, high triglycerides, low high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good," cholesterol, high blood pressure, and high insulin levels. If you have high blood pressure, you're more likely to have other components of metabolic syndrome. The more components you have, the greater your risk of developing diabetes, heart disease or stroke.
- Trouble with memory or understanding. Uncontrolled high blood pressure also may affect your ability to think, remember and learn. Trouble with memory or understanding concepts is more common in people who have high blood pressure.
References
- Chobanian AV, et al. Seventh report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure. Hypertension. 2003;42(6)1202-1256.
- Onusko E. Diagnosing secondary hypertension. American Family Physician. 2003;68(1):67-74.
- Taler SJ. Secondary causes of hypertension. Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice. 2008;35(3):489-500.
- Domino FJ, et al. Overview of hypertension in adults. http://www.uptodate.com. Accessed Sept. 18, 2008.
- Ong KL, et al. Prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension among United States adults 1999-2004. Hypertension. 2007;49(1):69-75.
- Polycystic kidney disease. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/polycystic/. Accessed Sept. 16, 2008.
- Glomerulonephritis. National Kidney Foundation. http://www.kidney.org/atoz/atozPrint.cfm?id=65 Accessed Sept. 16, 2008.
- Bilateral hydronephrosis. University of Maryland Medical Center. http://www.umm.edu/ency/article/000474all.htm. Accessed Sept. 16, 2008.
- ATA hypothyroidism booklet. American Thyroid Association. http://www.thyroid.org/patients/brochures/Hypothyroidism%20_web_booklet.pdf. Accessed Sept. 16, 2008.
- Hyperthyroidism. American Thyroid Association. http://www.thyroid.org/patients/brochures/Hyper_brochure.pdf. Accessed Sept. 16, 2008.
- Hyperparathyroidism. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. http://endocrine.niddk.nih.gov/pubs/hyper/hyper.htm. Accessed Sept. 16, 2008.
- What is preeclampsia? National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/hbp/issues/preg/preclamp.htm. Accessed Sept. 16, 2008.
