Prediction of Primary vs Secondary Hypertension in Children

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91106/1/j.1751-7176.2012.00603.x.pd

Is the measurement of blood pressure by automatic monitor in the South American pediatric population accurate? SAYCARE Study

ABSTRACT: This study aimed to test the validity of an automatic oscillometric device to measure the blood pressure (BP) in children (n 5 191) and adolescents (n 5 127) aged 3 to 18 years.Methods: Systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) levels were measured simultaneous by automaticdevice and mercury column with Y-connection. To verify the validity, Bland-Altman plots and limits of agreement of 95% (95% LOA), specificity and sensitivity of the device, and the grade of British Hypertension Society (BHS) criteria were used. Results: The monitor measurements demonstrated lower measurement bias (mean difference [95% LOA]): 1.4 (29.9 to 12.8) mmHg in children and 4.3 (27.8 to 16.5) mmHg in adolescents for SBP. For DBP, it was 2.2 (27.4 to 11.7) mmHg in children and 1.4 (28.4 to 11.1) mmHg in adolescents. The sensitivity in children was 21.4 (95% CI 5 16.3-26.6), and in adolescents, it was 20.0 (95% CI 5 13.2-26.8); the specificity was 95.9 (95% CI 5 93.4-98.4) in children and 100.0 (95% CI 5 100.0-100.0) in adolescents. The monitor-tested ratings are Grade B for SBP in children and SBP and DBP in adolescents and Grade C for DBP in children. Conclusions: The automatic monitor presented high values of specificity and lower values of sensitivity to the diagnosis of HBP; however, it can be considered accurate (lower measurement bias) and valid for epidemiological and clinical practice in accordance with BHS criteria

Comparison of blood pressure levels among four age groups of Chinese children matched by height

Hypertension in children is frequently undiagnosed. Normal blood pressure is currently defined as a function of two continuous variables, age and height for each gender. Applying the current cutoff values to assess a child's blood pressure is time consuming. To separate the independent effect of age from that of height on blood pressure, we conducted a multiple group matched study to investigate if blood pressure levels in children with a given height distribution vary with age. An equal number of 2539 Chinese children from each of the four age groups (7, 8, 9 and 10 years) were individually matched by height, sex and geographic region. We used the matching technique to force the four age groups to have an identical height distribution. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures significantly increased with increasing age before matching. After matching, four groups had strikingly similar levels of blood pressures, and the differences among four groups were small and not statistically significant. Once height is taken into consideration, age has little impact on blood pressure. Our findings, if confirmed in children of other ages, suggest that blood pressure percentile charts can be considerably simplified by establishing normal percentiles according to height alone for each gender

The triglyceride to high-density lipoprotein ratio identifies children who may be at risk of developing cardiometabolic disease

Aim: It is important to develop simple, reliable methods to identify high-risk individuals who may benefit from intervention. This study investigated the association between the triglyceride to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TG/HDL) ratio and cardiometabolic risk, cardiorespiratory fitness and physical activity in children. Methods: Anthropometric, biochemical parameters, cardiorespiratory fitness and accelerometry determined physical activity were assessed in 155 children (80 girls) from 10 to 14 years of age from Bedfordshire, UK. Participants were grouped into high and low TG/HDL ratio groups, according to published thresholds. MANCOVA and logistic regression were used in the analysis. Results: Cardiometabolic risk factor levels were significantly higher in participants with a high TG/HDL ratio (p < 0.05). The odds of having high waist circumference (OR = 13.99; 95% CI 2.93, 69.25), elevated systolic blood pressure (5.27; 1.39, 20.01), high non-HDL cholesterol (19.47; 4.42, 85.81) and ≥2 cardiometabolic risk factors (15.32; 3.10, 75.79) were higher in participants with a high TG/HDL ratio. The TG/HDL ratio values were significantly lower in those with high cardiorespiratory fitness (p = 0.01), but there was no association with physical activity. Conclusion: These findings support the use of the TG/HDL ratio to identify children with cardiometabolic risk factors who may be at risk of developing cardiometabolic disease