The Interpretation of Increased Blood Uric Acid in Hypertension

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE It has been known for over a century that, after nephrectomy, urea accumulates in the blood, 1 and Bright (1834) was aware that this occurs in the disease first described by him. That uric acid may be increased in nephritis was discovered three-quarters of a century ago by Garrod 2 with the aid of his naive string test. Our modern knowledge of the blood chemistry in kidney disease was inaugurated when Strauss 3 demonstrated that the total nonprotein nitrogen of the blood is increased in asthenic uremia, and Widal 4 showed that the blood urea rises in this condition. Successful study of the constituents other than urea which make up the nonprotein nitrogen could only be carried out, after methods for their quantitative determination in small quantities of blood had been developed by Folin and his co-workers. It was then found that uric acid and creatinin also are often increased