Kamilė Gerulytė¹, Karolina Stankevičiūtė¹, Diana Daščioraitė¹

¹Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Academy of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kaunas, Lithuania 

Abstract

 Pediatric arterial hypertension (AH) is a growing problem in the world. European studies show that the prevalence of AH among adolescents is 2.2% in Switzerland, 2.5% in Hungary and 4.9% in Poland. AH is a congenital or acquired pathology when systolic and/or diastolic blood pressure is > 95‰ up to 16 years. For older children, AH is diagnosed when blood pressure is ≥130/80 mmHg. Mostly, AH is asymptomatic, but clinical signs are possible. For example, headache, fatigue, epistaxis. This disease is divided into primary-idiopathic and secondary- caused by other conditions. Secondary AH is often caused by renal parenchyma and renovascular diseases, congenital aortic coarctation, various endocrine diseases, medications and obesity. To prescribe an appropriate treatment is essential to evaluate the type of illness. The treatment of primary AH begins with the correction of risk factors and in later stages is followed by medication only. For secondary AH, it is crucial to treat the primary disease. In this article etiology, diagnosis and treatment issues will be provided.

Keywords: pediatric arterial hypertension, congenital or acquired pathology, blood pressure.