News Update: Hypertension underdiagnosed in children with chronic kidney disease

In children with chronic kidney disease, high blood pressure is often missed, which may lead to increased cardiovascular risk.

In a study published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, researchers analyzed cross-sectional data from children who had baseline echocardiography and underwent ambulatory blood pressure monitoring as part of the Chronic Kidney Disease in Children study. A total of 17% of the study participants had left ventricular hypertrophy at baseline. The researchers found that 38% of the children had masked hypertension, and 18% had confirmed hypertension. Children with confirmed or masked hypertension were more likely to have left ventricular hypertrophy compared with children who had normal blood pressure (odds ratios, 4.3 and 4.1, respectively).

The authors stated that these results point out the importance of early echocardiography and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in pediatric patients with chronic kidney disease.