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In spite of the widespread use of intravenous urography and its extensive employment in the study of hypertension, there is still no unanimity of views as to its application in such pathology. 147 urographies belonging to 330 hypertense patients admitted to the Bari Medical Pathology Department between 1-1-1975 and 30-9-1977 have therefore been examined so as to assess its diagnostic value. Thereafter, the percentage of abnormalities found with urography were evaluated and compared with those in the population at large. Results stress on the one hand the higher incidence of renal ptosis and poly-cystic kidneys in the hypertense, and also highlight the possibility of revealing clinically silent diseases with this technique; on the other hand, many urographies (more than 50%) were useless and it is not always possible to diagnose certainly the presence of stenosis of the renal artery owing to the presence of false positives and negatives.

ECG traces from 60 children aged 10-14 yr with hypertension were examined to see whether this condition itself was enough to alter the parameters in a statistical comparison with the traces for 19 normotensive children of the same age. Some statistically significant differences were noted in: the deviation of the P wave axis, increased left ventricle activation time, frequency and QTc segment, presence of anticlockwise rotation on the longitudinal plane and junctional rhythms. These support the view that changes in these parameters is not dependent on the concomitance of other diseases, but due to hypertension itself.