191 First Croatian Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Arterial Hypertension in Children and Adolescents

Abstract

<h3></h3> Hypertension in children and adolescents is a growing public health problem. The risk of developing hypertension in children is higher than ever before due to adverse circumstances such as obesity, excessive salt and processed food intake, reduced physical activity and stress. Hypertension is transmitted from childhood, and especially adolescence, into adulthood and thus increases the risk for cardiovascular disease in adulthood. As information regarding pediatric hypertension has changed over the last few decades, we have developed the first Croatian guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension in children and adolescents based on recent literature and guidelines of international societies adapted to our circumstances. Fourteen doctors from different centers – members of the pediatric hypertension working group from the Croatian Society of Hypertension – participated in the development of our guidelines. We tried to cover various aspects of pediatric hypertension – epidemiology, prevention, primary and secondary hypertension, diagnosis, vascular phenotype factors, athlete hypertension, neonatal hypertension, treatment of hypertension and hypertensive urgency and emergency. With these recommendations, we tried to make it easier for doctors to cope with the issue of pediatric hypertension, as well as offer practical instructions on how to deal with such patients. These are all reasons why we believe that the guidelines, written by members of the Croatian Society of Pediatric Cardiology and Rheumatology, the Croatian Society of Pediatric Nephrology, the Croatian Society of School and University Medicine and the Croatian Society of Hypertension, will be useful in prevention, active search for hypertension in children and its treatment. The guidelines can be found on the website of the Croatian Society for Hypertension https://hdh.emed.hr/upload/hdh_smjernica/dokument_1581600283.pdf