Calcium Metabolism and Its Relationship to Blood Pressure in Humans

Essential hypertension (EHT) is a condition carrying increased risk of vascular morbidity and death. Whether the blood pressure per se or hither to unidentified factors associated with EHT are the cause of this morbidity is not well understood, neither are the mechanisms behind the development of hypertension yet known. Let us imagine how this group of subjects at risk for vascular disease might have been identified if the invention of the calcium atomic absorption technique, the ionized calcium analyzer, and the parathyroid hormone assay had preceded the invention of the sphygmomanometer — and furthermore had been at least as easy to employ in the screening of populations.