Abstract
Essential hypertension is diagnosed with increasing frequency in children. Although the cause is unknown, familial and/or hereditary factors are considered important in the pathogenesis, and indeed an aggregation of blood pressure levels has been demonstrated in families. We measured during each of 2 consecutive summers the blood pressure of 94 offspring, 47 males and 47 females age 2.5-22 years, from 29 families in which at least one parent was being treated for essential hypertension. The subjects were examined at home. The blood pressure was recorded after 15 minutes rest in the supine position;3 values were obtained in each arm, and the mean of each of the systolic and diastolic pressures was considered as the subject's blood pressure. Hypertension was defined as a systolic and/or diastolic reading above the 95th percentile for age and sex(Pediatrics 56:3,1975). None of the subjects was hypertensive.
Failure to detect hypertension in this selected population which should theoretically be at risk because of hereditary and familial factors leads us to question current estimates of the incidence of essential hypertension in children, reported by some investigators to be as high as 2%. Furthermore values recorded under duress - e.g., doctor's office or hospital, should be regarded as potentially spurious.
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Kaplan, B., Fox, H., Seidman, E. et al. NORMAL BLOOD PRESSURE IN OFFSPRING OF PATIENTS WITH ESSENTIAL HYPERTENSION. Pediatr Res 11, 437 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197704000-00404
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197704000-00404