Detection and prevalence of arterial hypertension in school age children from Braganca Paulista, Sao Paolo, Brazil
ASN 30th Annual Meeting, San Antonio
J Am Soc Nephrol (Sep) 8:319A 1997
The connection between adult onset cardiovascular disease and childhood hypertension is becoming the focus of attention. Blood pressure "tracking " from early childhood does exist, eventhough most hypertensive adults were not hypertensive as children. High blood pressure is a well-established risk factor in cardiovascular events hence, it is important to know whether children in the higher blood pressure group would need special medical attention.
The study reports blood pressure values on 479 randomly selected 6-12 year old children (244 girls, 235 boys) in Brazil. The authors sent questionnaire to the parents, took 3 blood pressure measurements on the children and obtained a body mass index (BMI). They found that 43 (8.98 %) of the children had blood pressure above the 99th percentile of standards published by the Second Task Force on Blood Pressure Control in Children. An additional 103 (21.5 %) had blood pressures above the 95th percentile. Of those with blood pressure above the 95th percentile, 78 (75.73 %) had BMI above the 50th percentile and 21 (20.38%) had family history of hypertension.
Comment: There is a strikingly higher prevalence of mild to severe hypertension in this Brazilian cohort as compared to children from the USA. The authors point out the importance of overweight and other familial factors (environmental? genetic?) in this higher prevalence. Clearly, such studies, are a useful beginning on the road to establishing the magnitude of blood pressure problems among children in different ethnic groups. Coupled with long term follow-up for cardiovascular events, similar studies could increase our understanding of the pathogenesis, treatment and early prevention of those cardiovascular events. (Laszlo Hopp, Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children; Wilmington, DE)
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ASN 30th Annual Meeting, San Antonio
H: Diagnosis : Preadolescent and adolescent
H: Special problems : Obesity, Insulin Resistance