Ambulatory 24-h. Blood Pressure Monitoring in Children

Czech version

Authors: T. Seeman
Authors‘ workplace: I. dětská klinika 2. LF UK a FN Motol, Praha, přednosta doc. MUDr. J. Janda, CSc.
Published in: Prakt. Lék. 1999; (2): 78-81
Category:

Overview

Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is a new method of blood pressure (BP)assessment. It measures BP non-invasively, intermittently in a regular time intervals during24 hours per day as well as during sleep. The readings are taken under ambulatory conditions.The advantages of ABPM are an adequate number of measurements (60-70) which correlateswith intraarterial measurements, good reproducibility and the possibility to reveal circadianrhythms of BP and to measure BP during the sleep. The disadvantages are the high price ofthe device (about 6000 USD with software) and the need of cooperation of the child.ABPM has a diagnostic and therapeutic significance. It is an important method for the diagnosisof persistent hypertension, for revealing „white coat hypertension“, it provides importantinformation on the aetiology of hypertension and enables us to control antihypertensive therapymore efficiently. The parameters of ABPM correlate better with cardiovascular morbidity andmortality than those of casual BP. ABPM improved considerably the diagnosis and therapy ofhypertension. It is expected that it will become an essential method in BP evaluation also inchildren.

Key words:
ambulatory blood pressure monitoring - children - hypertension.

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