Postural Hypotension: The Localization of the Lesion

Since postural hypotension was first described by Bradbury and Eggleston in 1925, many reports have been published of patients in whom a great fall in blood pressure occurred on standing. In such cases the blood pressure is usually normal while the patient is horizontal, but falls progressively as he approaches the standing position, and does not rise again until he once more reclines. The cases fall into two groups. In one the disorder is associated with disease of the nervous or endocrine systems, and may be termed symptomatic postural hypotension. In the other no gross evidence of disease is found: some 36 reported cases are of this type, which, as suggested by Bradbury and Eggleston, appears to be a clinical entity to which the term idiopathic postural hypotension may be applied.