Search

We have measured the blood pressure to 1500 children aged between 6 and 14 years by sphingomanometric method, using various cuffs according to the recommendations of the A.H.A. Systolic and diastolic pressure was taken and the average value and standard deviations were calculated for each age. On the ground of the values equal or higher than 97 degrees percentil was the presence of 99 subjects afflicted with not secondary hypertension. We noticed that blood pressure increases with the age, is independent of sex, but bears relationship to the presence of obesity (out of 72 obese subjects, 25 were afflicted with hypertension), of menarca (17 hypertensive menstruated out of 27) and of family hypertension (31 hypertensive parents out of 41 examined). Neither relation was found between children's hypertension and socio-economical level nor between hypertension and presence of pathological proteinuria.

Changes in arterial blood pressure and in thermographic values were evaluated in two groups of 15 hypertensive patients, each of which was treated, on a random basis, with a combination of atenolol plus chlorthalidone or a combination of labetalol plus chlorthalidone. Both combinations produced a statistically significant reduction in blood pressure values (p less than 0.01) with no changes in heart rate. Telethermographic investigations revealed the presence of hypothermia of the hands before treatment in all the hypertensive patients examined, but not in the control group (10 normal subjects with no vascular and/or hyperthermic disease). After one month of treatment, no changes in peripheral vascularization were observed in the group treated with atenolol plus chlorthalidone, except for 4 cases showing mild improvement, probably due to a reduction in peripheral resistance as a result of the treatment and to a consequent increase in blood flow in the area investigated. In the group treated with labetalol plus chlorthalidone, on the other hand, a substantial recovery of vascular flow was observed in 12 patients as a result of the treatment, while the remaining 3 patients showed a fair degree of improvement (2 degrees C). Both preparations lent themselves to simplified administration regimens with good patient compliance and no adverse reactions.

ECG traces from 60 children aged 10-14 yr with hypertension were examined to see whether this condition itself was enough to alter the parameters in a statistical comparison with the traces for 19 normotensive children of the same age. Some statistically significant differences were noted in: the deviation of the P wave axis, increased left ventricle activation time, frequency and QTc segment, presence of anticlockwise rotation on the longitudinal plane and junctional rhythms. These support the view that changes in these parameters is not dependent on the concomitance of other diseases, but due to hypertension itself.