Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Tests and diagnosis
By Mayo Clinic staffTo diagnose secondary hypertension, your doctor will first take a blood pressure reading using an inflatable cuff, just as your blood pressure is measured during a typical doctor's appointment. Your doctor may not diagnose you with secondary hypertension based on one higher than normal blood pressure reading — it often takes at least three consecutive high blood pressure measurements at separate appointments to diagnose secondary hypertension.
Your doctor will also want to check other markers to pinpoint the cause of your high blood pressure. These could include:
- A blood test. Your doctor may want to check your potassium, sodium, total cholesterol and triglycerides, and other chemicals in your blood to help make a diagnosis.
- Urinalysis. Your doctor may want to check your urine for markers that could show your high blood pressure is caused by another medical condition.
- Ultrasound of your kidneys. Since many kidney conditions are linked to secondary hypertension, your doctor may order an ultrasound of your kidneys. In this noninvasive test, a technician will run an instrument called a transducer over your skin. The transducer, which produces sound waves, measures how the sound waves bounce off your kidneys and sends images created by the sound waves to a computer monitor.
- Electrocardiogram (ECG). If your doctor thinks your secondary hypertension may be caused by a heart problem, he or she may order an electrocardiogram. In this noninvasive test, sensors (electrodes) that can detect the electrical activity of your heart are attached to your chest and sometimes to your limbs. An ECG measures the timing and duration of each electrical phase in your heartbeat.
- Chobanian AV, et al. Seventh report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure. Hypertension. 2003;42(6)1202-1256.
- Onusko E. Diagnosing secondary hypertension. American Family Physician. 2003;68(1):67-74.
- Taler SJ. Secondary causes of hypertension. Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice. 2008;35(3):489-500.
- Domino FJ, et al. Overview of hypertension in adults. http://www.uptodate.com. Accessed Sept. 18, 2008.
- Ong KL, et al. Prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension among United States adults 1999-2004. Hypertension. 2007;49(1):69-75.
- Polycystic kidney disease. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/polycystic/. Accessed Sept. 16, 2008.
- Glomerulonephritis. National Kidney Foundation. http://www.kidney.org/atoz/atozPrint.cfm?id=65 Accessed Sept. 16, 2008.
- Bilateral hydronephrosis. University of Maryland Medical Center. http://www.umm.edu/ency/article/000474all.htm. Accessed Sept. 16, 2008.
- ATA hypothyroidism booklet. American Thyroid Association. http://www.thyroid.org/patients/brochures/Hypothyroidism%20_web_booklet.pdf. Accessed Sept. 16, 2008.
- Hyperthyroidism. American Thyroid Association. http://www.thyroid.org/patients/brochures/Hyper_brochure.pdf. Accessed Sept. 16, 2008.
- Hyperparathyroidism. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. http://endocrine.niddk.nih.gov/pubs/hyper/hyper.htm. Accessed Sept. 16, 2008.
- What is preeclampsia? National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/hbp/issues/preg/preclamp.htm. Accessed Sept. 16, 2008.
