Venous tone in essential hypertension.

Peripheral venous tone was measured in 124 patients with essential hypertension and in 20 healthy persons by digital electroplethysmography according to B. E. Votchal. In patients with hypertension stage II, the venous tone significantly decreased with increasing arterial tone; in patients in stage I this tendency was statistically not significant. In orthostasis the increase in venous tone was much lesser than that in arterial tone. The close positive correlation between venous capacity and the degree of decrease in systolic and pulse pressure make it possible to assess the systemic venous pressure on the basis of findings obtained from occlusion plethysmographic measurements. In patients with hypertensive disease in stage IIA, treated with reserpine, the arterial tone and pressure decreased, whereas the venous tone significantly increased (normalized).