Cardiovascular characteristics in adolescents who develop essential hypertension.

The risk parameters for the development of essential hypertension (EH) were evaluated in a group of adolescents with borderline hypertension. A population comprised of 50 adolescents with systolic or diastolic blood pressure between the 90th and 95th percentile was compared to a normotensive (less than 90%) family history-negative control population. Evaluative parameters included genetic risk, resting blood pressure, resting heart rate, and cardiovascular response to mental stress. In a follow-up period of up to 41 months, 28 borderline hypertensive adolescents (56%) developed fixed EH. At the time of initial evaluation, these 28 hypertensive adolescents had a strong family history of EH, higher resting heart rate (p less than 0.01) and blood pressure (p less than 0.01), and a greater cardiovascular response to mental stress (p less than 0.001) compared to the normotensive family history-negative control population. Time series analysis of the stress phase also demonstrated a rhythmic cardiovascular response in the normotensive group (p less than 0.05) that was not present in the hypertensive group. These results indicate that adolescents with borderline hypertension displaying these characteristics have a greater risk for EH than previously reported.