Sinoaortic Regulatory System

WHILE most authors agree on the humoral nature of renal hypertension, at least in early stages, there are many different theories concerning the pathogenesis of essential hypertension. The most important of these theories are vascular sclerosis, humoral mechanism, renal ischemia, hypoxemia of the brain, and hypersensitivity of the vasoconstrictor centers. Page 1 wrote that hypertension is the result of multiple forces acting on the circulatory apparatus and that the problem cannot be solved in the elucidation of only one of these forces. Page tried to integrate all the presently known etiological factors into one system. Since the discovery of the aortic nerve by de Cyon and Ludwig and of the carotid nerve by Hering, investigators have learned from numerous animal experiments that these nerves are most sensitive to minute changes in blood pressure. Physiologists Hering, Koch, and Heymans proposed, therefore, that essential hypertension may develop through disruption of the receptors