Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty for severe renovascular hypertension due to renal-artery medial fibroplasia.

Percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty (P.T.R.A.) was performed in a 43-year-old woman with medial fibroplasia of the right main renal artery that was causing high-grade stenoses and severe hypertension. The procedure led to a virtually complete dilatation of the stenosing lesions and a prompt and lasting fall in blood-pressure to normal. Hypersecretion of renin from the right kidney was also promptly suppressed. The procedure was well tolerated by the patient and no complications were discerned. P.T.R.A. deserves further investigation to assess its role in the management of renovascular hypertension.