Secondary hypertension is characterized by

• A. No identifiable cause.
• B. Elevated blood pressure caused by an identifiable medical condition such as kidney disease.
• C. Elevated diastolic.
• D. Elevated systolic only with normal diastolic.

Answer: (B)

Secondary hypertension means high blood pressure that is caused by another identifiable medical condition, such as kidney disease. This is what sets it apart from primary (essential) hypertension, which has no single detectable cause. The key idea is the link between a specific underlying illness and the elevated blood pressure, which guides targeted evaluation and treatment of that condition.

The other descriptions don’t define secondary hypertension: focusing on whether diastolic or systolic pressure is elevated describes the pattern of the reading, not the cause, and isolated patterns aren’t what distinguish secondary hypertension.