International Journal of Preventive Medicine
Volume:5 Issue: 3, Mar 2014

Since the report from the national high blood pressure (BP) education program working group on BP in children and adolescents and the introduction of a new description called prehypertension many data have been provided on its rate of progression to hypertension, its prevalence and association with other cardiovascular (CV) risk factors and its therapy. Making a diagnosis of prehypertension in a child or adolescent identifies an individual at increased risk for early-onset CV disease who requires specific treatment. Thus, routine BP measurement is highly recommended at every health-care encounter beginning at 3 years of age. This review will present updated data on prehypertension in children and adolescents to increase awareness of health-care providers to the seriousness of this condition. Optimal BP measurement techniques as well as the evaluation and management of prehypertension will be discussed and preventive strategies to reduce the CV risk will be presented.

Although primary chronic hypertension (HTN) is increasingly common in adolescence, secondary forms of HTN are more common among children. Primary HTN is associated with being overweight and/or a positive family history of HTN. Carotid intima-media thickness, a known risk factor for atherosclerosis is frequent in both adults and children with HTN and other associated cardiovascular (CV) risk factors including obesity, dyslipidemia, diabetes and chronic kidney disease. Left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy is also a common finding in children and adolescents with newly diagnosed HTN. Children with certain medical conditions such as congenital heart disease and Kawasaki disease can develop premature atherosclerosis heart disease that may lead to coronary heart disease and heart failure. Life-style interventions are recommended for all children with HTN, with pharmacologic therapy added for symptomatic children based on the presence of co-morbidities. As an example, beta-blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blocker and/or calcium channel blockers would be best for children with CV risk factors such as diabetes or renal disease, whereas an ACE inhibitor in combination with a beta-blocker and diuretics including spironolactone are recommended for patients with heart failure and reduced LV ejection fraction. This report will summarize new developments in the management of pediatric HTN complicated with CV disease and heart failure and will address the appropriate antihypertensive therapy that could potentially reduce the future burden of adult CV disease.

Errors in blood pressure (BP) measurement are common in the clinical practice. Inaccurate measurements of BP may lead to misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment of hypertension. The preferred method of BP measurement in the clinical setting is a scultation, using the first and the fifth Korotkoff sounds. However, the use of mercury sphygmomanometer is declining. Automated oscillometric devices are an acceptable alternative method of BP measurements if the proper cuff size is used. Aneroid devices are suitable, but they require frequent calibration. There is increasing evidence that home readings predict cardiovascular events and are particularly useful for monitoring the effects of treatment. At 24 h ambulatory monitoring is also useful for diagnosing white-coat hypertension and resistance hypertension. There is increasing evidence that lack of nocturnal BP dipping during the night may be associated with increased cardiovascular event. This report attempts to address the need for accurate BP measurements in children and adolescents by reducing human and equipment errors and providing clinicians with the accurate measurement of BP, which is essential to classify individuals, to ascertain BP-related CV risks and to guide management.

Resistant hypertension in adolescents is increasing in frequency and is increasingly recognized as having significant short- and long-term health consequences. It may be seen in up to 30% of all hypertensive patients cared for. Adolescents with resistant hypertension are at higher cardiovascular (CV) risk due to a long history of severe hypertension complicated by other CV risk factors such as obesity. Common causes of resistant hypertension include primary aldosteronism, sleep apnea, diabetes and chronic kidney disease. Careful blood pressure (BP) measurement and thorough evaluation of patients with sustained BP elevation should make a possible early diagnosis of resistant hypertension. Successful treatment requires identification and reversal of life-style factors contributing to treatment resistant and diagnosis and appropriate treatment of causes of hypertension. Improved pharmacologic therapies may offer the potential for preventing or at least ameliorating early CV disease. This review highlights these and other important issues in the evaluation and management of adolescents with resistant hypertension and provides practical guidance to the practitioners involved in caring for such patients.

Hypertension after pediatric renal transplant is a common and important risk factor for graft loss and patient survival. The mechanism of post kidney transplant hypertension is complex and multifactorial. Control of blood pressure in renal transplant patients is important but often times blood pressures remain uncontrolled. The management of hypertension and obesity in pediatric kidney transplant patients is based on the pathophysiology. Compared to the general pediatric hypertensive population, special attention needs to be focused on the additional impact of immunosuppressive medications side effects and interactions, recurrent disease, and donor and recipient comorbidities such as obesity on blood pressure control with thoughtful consideration of the risk of graft failure. In general, there is a need for prospective studies in pediatric kidney transplant patients to understand the pathophysiology of hypertension and obesity and the appropriate approach to achieve a balance between the primary need to avoid rejection and the need to lower blood pressure and prevent obesity.

Hypertension in newborn infants, particularly those requiring intensive care, is becoming increasingly recognized, with prevalence of 0.2-3%. Recent studies have established normative tables for blood pressure (BP) in both term and pre-term infants based on the gestational age, postnatal age, gender, weight and height, identifying the neonates at increased risk for early-onset cardiovascular disease. Common causes of neonatal hypertension include thromboembolic complications secondary to umbilical artery catheterization, congenital renal structural malformation, renovascular disease, aortic coarctation, as well as acute kidney injury and certain medications. A careful diagnostic evaluation should lead to identification of the underlying cause of hypertension in most infants. Treatment options should be tailored to the severity; and underlying cause of hypertension, including intravenous and/or oral therapy. This review summarizes recent work in these areas, focusing on optimal BP measurement, definition, evaluation and management of hypertension as well as advances in drug therapy of neonatal hypertension.

Hypertension is more common in adults with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) than the general population. The aim of this study was to detect the pre-hypertensive stage in children with T1D and to evaluate its correlation with diabetic nephropathy compared to non-diabetic children. This was a prospective cross-sectional study in an out-patient clinic of a university hospital. A total of 62 which consists of 36 males and 26 females patients with stable T1D with a median age of 13 year and 42 age - sex-matched healthy children were entered in the study between September 2008 and February 2011. Three readings of blood pressure were recorded. Fasting blood sample was drawn for hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C), creatinine and a 24 hurine aliquot was collected to measure microalbumin, creatinine and volume to estimate glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). From 62 children with T1DM, 25.8% were in pre-hypertensive stage, 4.8% Stage 1, and 1.6% Stage 2. In controls, 1 (2.4%) out of 42 children was in pre-hypertensive stage (P < 0.0001). Abnormal blood pressures were correlatedwith eGFR and the duration of disease (P < 0.05), but there were not associated with microalbominuria or HbA1C level. There was a higher rate of early stage of high normal blood pressure in children with T1DM compared with the healthy controls and this abnormality was only correlated with puberty stage and glomerular filtration rate.

Because prehypertension identifies children most at risk for the development of future hypertensive disease, the purpose of this study was, to examine the association of prehypertension with risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a large sample of youths participating in the community-based prevention education program family heart study. We estimated blood pressure and body mass index (BMI) for age and the lipid profile in terms of total cholesterol (TC), low-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), non-HDL-C, triglycerides (TG) and the LDL-C to HDL-C ratio. Among 10,841 (5,628 males) children and adolescents 1,587 (14.6%) had prehypertension (85th to <95th percentile). This was strongly affected by weight, resulting in 19.7% in overweight (BMI≥85th percentile) and 23.7% in obese (>95th percentile) youth. The prevalence of dyslipidemia was similar in prehypertensive boys and girls in terms of LDL-C 11.2% versus 11.8%, non HDL-C 11.9% versus 14.3%, TG 2.4% versus 2.7% and for low HDL-C 2.1% versus 2.3%. The prevalence of low HDL-C increased from 2.1% in non-overweight, through 3.9% in overweight to 5.2% in obese youth and of elevated TG from 1.2% via 4.5% to 6.5% respectively. The number of risk factors is affected by BMI. Significant associations between prehypertension and CVD risk factors were observed in boys and girls for overweight/obesity odds ratios (OR 2.0/2.4), for hypertriglyceridemia (OR 1.9/2.0), for high non HDL-C (OR 1.4/1.4) and for elevated LDL-C (OR 1.3/1.1). Prhypertension was significantly associatedwith overweight, obesity and dyslipidemia in 10,841 children and adolescents.

The global health burden has faced toward non-communicable diseases (NCDs). It is suggested that adulthood blood pressure (BP) is tracked from childhood. This study aims to evaluate the mean BP and the prevalence of prehypertension and hypertension in the Iranian pediatric population. In a national survey as the 4th phase of Childhood and Adolescence Surveillance and Prevention of Adult Non-communicable diseases study and through random multistage cluster sampling, a national sample of Iranian school students, aged 6-18 years, were recruited. Data gathered by means of modified World Health Organization Global school-based student health survey questionnaire, a weight disorders determinants questionnaire and anthropometric and BP measurements. Prehypertension (HTN) was defined as BP equal or graterthan 90th age and sex specific percentile or ≥120/80 mmHg and HTN was defined as BP ≥95th percentile. A total of 13486 students entered the study (49.2% girls, 75.6% urban). Mean age of participants was 11.47 ± 3.36 years. A total rate of 4.17% (3.84-4.52 95% CI) for high systolic BP (SBP), 4.33% (3.99-4.68) for high diastolic BP (DBP) and 6.88% (6.45-7.32) for high SBP and/or DBP was depicted. The prevalence rate of high BP (pre-HTN together with HTN) is substantially high in this population. It is needed to study the causative situations and implement relevant interventions.

Hypertension is fast emerging as a major health problem amongst all school adolescents, particularly in urban areas. Regular screening of the students for this is required for preventing the emergence of complications later in life. Therefore,the present study was undertaken with the objective to determine the prevalence of hypertension amongst urban school adolescents and its correlation with anthropometric measurements. A cross-sectional study was conducted in a school in Central Delhi involving all 315 students of 9th and 11th standard. A preforma was filled by the students and anthropometric measurements along with blood pressure (BP) measurements were taken for each student. Data was analyzed using Epi-info 2005 and SPSS 16.0. Out of the total 315 students, 208 (66%) were boys and 107 (34%) were girls and the mean age was 14.31 ± 0.96 years. Overall prevalence of malnutrition was 24% and boys were found to be more obese as compared to girls. There were 5 students (1.6%) who were found to have systolic hypertension while 17 (5.4%) were found to have diastolic hypertension while 4.1% (n = 13) of the participants were systolic pre-hypertensive and 26% (n = 82) were in stage of diastolic pre-hypertension. Body mass index and genderwere found to be independent predictor for systolic hypertension. Prevalence of hypertension and pre-hypertension was high amongst the school children. BP check-up for children and adolescents is thus recommended to take remedial action on time.