The renally compromised older hypertensive: therapeutic considerations. Although the slow progression of renal insufficiency caused by aging does not usually reach the clinical disease level, nephron loss may be accelerated by the concomitant presence of hypertension and renal artery atherosclerosis. Treatment of hypertension and correction of other risk factors promoting atherosclerosis is appropriate in the elderly. Consideration should be given to a search for reversible causes of renal functional deterioration in elderly patients, particularly in those with increasingly refractory hypertension. In the uncomplicated elderly hypertensive, renal function appears to be adequately preserved if blood pressure is well controlled, although there may be a subset in whom factors other than blood pressure itself, such as glomerular hemodynamic disturbances, promote progressive renal dysfunction. 