Results of ambulatory arterial blood pressure monitoring in children with obesity

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Objectives: The relationship between obesity and essential hypertension is well known. In this study, we aimed to evaluate ambulatory arterial blood pressure monitoring of obese and non-obese children who had similar demographic characteristics.Materials and methods: Seventy one children and adolescents (n=39 obesity, n=32 controls) were studied. Blood pressure of the children were measured by 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring device.Results: Obese children had significantly higher mean blood pressure values (systolic 121.9±11.7 mmHg, diastolic 70.2±5.3 mmHg) than control subjects (systolic 109.3±6.7 mmHg, diastolic 65.1±4.6 mmHg, p 0.05). Also, daytime and nighttime systolic and diastolic blood pressures were higher in patients with obesity than controls (p 0.05). Distribution of dipping status was not different between groups (p 0.05). Blood pressure load was found to be increased in obese children compared to the controls (%13.6±12.9 and %2.6±3.4, respectively; p 0.05). Serum total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels of obese children (181.1±33.4 and 131.1±23.1mg/dl) were significantly higher than those of the controls (134.3±11.1 and 103.3±14.2 mg/dl, p 0.05).Conclusions: Obesity in children and adolescents should not be regarded as variations of normality, but as abnormality with an extremely high risk for the development of hypertension and hyperlipidemia in adulthood.

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Hypertension , ambulatory blood pressure monitoring , children , obesity

Dicle Medical Journal

357

Dicle Medical Journal