Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring of healthy schoolchildren with a family history of hypertension

Abstract

Early detection of primary hypertension (HT) is essential to prevent the development of end organ damage, especially in patients with a family history of HT. Physicians must pay a great attention during the follow-up of these children. Our aim was to investigate whether children with hypertensive parents are under the risk of development of HT or not by using ambulatory blood pressure measurement (ABPM). Seventy-nine healthy children were enrolled in the study: 39 with positive familial history of primary HT (study group) and 40 without familial history of HT (control group). Complete blood count, urinalysis, and biochemical tests were performed in all children in the study group. Children in both groups were examined by casual BP measurement and ABPM. The study group had significantly higher levels of BP (p < 0.05) than the controls. In the study group systolic BP and diastolic BP loads were significantly higher than the controls (p < 0.000; p = 0.002, respectively). In conclusion, parental BP is a strong predictor of the future BP in their children. It is possible that early abnormalities of BP may escape from detection by casual office measurement, and ABPM is recommended especially to detect BP abnormalities before HT becomes clinically overt.