Delayed hypersensitivity and essential hypertension. Delayed hypersensitivity against arterial wall components as a pathogenetic factor in essential hypertension.

By means of the leucocyte migration technique it is demonstrated that the migration indices from 9 patients suffering from essential hypertension are separated significantly from 14 patients suffering from secondary hypertension, diabetic angiopathy, periarteritis nodosa, temporal arteritis, endarteritis obliterans and from 11 normal persons. This means that a simple secondary degenerative damage of the vascular bed is not sufficient to produce measurable cellular antibodies against the vascular wall; accordingly the positive finding in patients with essential hypertension seems to be specific and possibly an important pathogenetic factor in at least some cases of essential hypertension.