[Postmortem diagnosis of hypertension].

The postmortem diagnosis of hypertension is of importance both for the determination of basic disease or terminal cause of death and for statistical investigations based on autopsy material or for comparisons between clinical and epidemiological data as well. The analysis of our autopsy records revealed: 1. The most important macroscopical findings are an increased weight of the heart, an arteriosclerosis of the peripheral extracerebral arteries of the brain, and an adenomatous hyperplasia or adenomas of the suprarenal cortex, they should be looked for at autopsy. 2. A microscopical finding of a hypertension is in the first place the arteriolosclerosis of kidneys followed by that of the pancreas, myocardium, liver, and brain. In practice, a specimen of kidney and pancreas should be investigated histologically in each case of a possible hypertension.