Cardiac status of adolescents tracking with high and low blood pressure since early childhood.

The risk of cardiovascular disease for children in the upper percentiles of the blood pressure distribution for age has not been determined. In this study echocardiographic evaluation was conducted at age 15 years in eight children tracking in the 89 +/- percentile for systolic blood pressure since age 8 years, and compared with nine children tracking in the 28 +/- 3 percentile over the same period. No significant differences were observed for left ventricular size, septal or posterior wall thickness or relative wall thickness using raw data, after adjustment for body mass index or after regression analysis using systolic blood pressure as the dependent variable. In contrast, stroke volume, cardiac output and left ventricular fractional shortening were greater in the high blood pressure group after adjustment for body mass index (P = 0.006, 0.075 and 0.08, respectively). These results suggest that changes consistent with previously reported findings in adults with essential hypertension (i.e. and increase in cardiac performance with normal peripheral resistance) are also early findings in adolescents tracking with high blood pressure.