  The explicit relationship is determined between the interior properties of a
static cylindrical matter distribution and the metric of the exterior
space-time according to Einstein gravity for space-time dimensionality larger
or equal to four. This is achieved through use of a coordinate system isotropic
in the transverse coordinates. As a corollary, similar results are obtained for
a spherical matter distribution in Brans-Dicke gravity for dimensions larger
than or equal to three. The approach used here leads to consistency conditions
for those parameters characterizing the exterior metric. It is shown that these
conditions are equivalent to the requirement of hydrostatic equilibrium of the
matter distribution (generalized Oppenheimer-Volkoff equations). These
conditions lead to a consistent Newtonian limit where pressures and the
gravitational constant go to zero at the same rate.
