Introduction: Childhood overweight and obesity are modifiable risk factors for the development of Hypertension (HTN). Elevated serum uric acid (UA) is a known cardiovascular risk factor in adults. Objective: To evaluate whether there is an association between high serum UA values and elevated BP in overweight and obese children and adolescents. Methods: Multicenter prospective cross-sectional study. Overweight and obese patients aged 5 to 18 years attended in HTN outpatient clinics of three tertiary pediatric hospitals in Buenos Aires were included. Office BP control, 24-hours ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) and laboratory tests (metabolic and lipid profile and serum UA measurement) were performed. Results: 173 patients were enrolled, mean age 11.7±2.9 years, 63 women (36.4%), 50 were overweight (28.9%) and 123 obese (71.1%). 143 normotensive (NT) patients were registered, 14 with white-coat HTN, 11 with masked hypertension (MH) and 5 with sustained HTN. The mean value of serum UA was 5.1±1.2, 113 subjects were above the mean value and 24 were above 2SD. Taking serum UA higher than the average (n:113) according to BP we observed 89/143 in NT vs. 13/14 in white-coat HTN (OR 7.8 95% CI 1.1-62.1 p=0.04), 89/143 in NT vs. 8/11 in MH (OR 1.6 95% CI 0.4-6.3 p=0.7) and 89/143 in NT vs. 3/5 in sustained HTN (OR 0.9 95% CI 0.1-5.2 p=0.9). Using serum UA >2SD (n:24) 14/143 above this value in NT vs. 7/14 in white-coat HTN (OR 9.2 95% CI 2.8-30.1 p<0.001), 14/143 in NT vs. 3/11 MH (OR 3.4 95% CI 0.8-14.5 p=0.1) and no subject with sustained HTN had serum UA values >2SD. Conclusions: Elevated serum UA was observed in subjects with white-coat HTN. The number of subjects with sustained HTN was not sufficient to evaluate the association with serum UA values. These findings emphasize the importance of the systematic implementation of 24-hours ABPM for detection of white-coat HTN in overweight and obese children and adolescents.
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