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George A. Perera, MD
New York

JAMA. 1970;214(11):2060.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

Primary (essential) hypertension has been interpreted by some as a specific entity and by others as a quantitative deviation from the norm. As most students of this disorder are aware, single "resting" or casual diastolic blood pressure readings may give erroneous impressions concerning the presence or absence of hypertension. However, tabulating the lowest of five casually recorded diastolic values in a series of 1,000 ambulatory subjects aged 45 to 50 years has disclosed two distinct groups with practically no overlap (79 mm Hg ± SD 6.2 and 98 ± 5.4), suggesting that a fraction of the population has a distinct abnormality.¹

Utilizing this approach in a large sample of ambulatory adults under 30 years of age, I have observed the onset of persistent hypertension in five instances. Five successive readings of the blood pressure were made in the sitting position and the first as well as . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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