BALTIMORE, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- In children, even mild untreated high blood pressure can lead to a potentially dangerous enlargement of the heart, according to a U.S. study.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and the Children's Hospital at Montefiore in New York City say persistently elevated blood pressure is a well-known risk factor for left-ventricular hypertrophy, or LVH, a thickening or enlarging of the lower left chamber of the heart. Pediatric guidelines say that any elevation in pressure measured in children on three consecutive office visits is by definition evidence of hypertension.
"It's apparently not true for children, at least, that the higher the blood pressure the worse the strain on the heart, and that surprised us," says kidney specialist Dr. Tammy Brady, Johns Hopkins Children's Center. "In this study, children with minimally high, very high and severely high blood pressure had evidence of heart enlargement."
The researchers examined 41 children from 1997 to 2005, who had primary hypertension, or high blood pressure not resulting from another underlying condition. Of the 141, 41 percent had LVH.
"Not only were our findings a surprise, but they are of concern given the growing numbers of children with high blood pressure, most likely due to spiraling rates of overweight and obesity," Brady says.
The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology in San Diego.
