Long-Term Control of Ambulatory Hypertension in Children: Improving With Time But Still Not Achieving New Blood Pressure Goals

Long-Term Control of Ambulatory Hypertension in Children: Improving With Time But Still Not Achieving New Blood Pressure Goals

Por: Tomáš Seeman y Jiri Gilík.  American Journal of Hypertension, March, 2013, Volume 26, Issue 7 Pp. 939-945.

Treatment of hypertension (HT) is of great important for prevention of cardiovascular and renal diseases; patients with uncontrolled HT have higher prevalence of hypertensive target organ damage such as left ventricular hypertrophy, cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, and chronic kidney diseases (CKDs) than patients with controlled HT.1–3 In adults, the control of HT achieved by antihypertensive drugs is often inadequate.  Short-term therapy can decrease blood pressure (BP) to less than the 95th percentile in only about 50% of children. The aim of our study was to investigate the long-term control of hypertension (HT) in children using ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM).   This first pediatric study focusing on long-term control of HT using ABPM showed that long-term control of HT is better than short-term control, but still only one-third of children achieve the new BP goals. The low control of HT might be improved by more intensive therapy.