A prospective study of clinical profile of hypertension in children

Abstract

Introduction: Hypertension is a persistent elevation of arterial Blood Pressure (BP) above levels defined as normal. It is a public health challenge for societies, not only in adults, but also in children in socioeconomic and epidemiological transition and one of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular death accounting for 20-50% of all deaths[2]. Primary (essential) hypertension occurs more commonly in adults, and if untreated, is a major risk factor for myocardial infarction, stroke and renal failure. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. Children between 3 and 15 years of age who visited the outpatient & inpatient Department of Paediatrics, BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, were screened for the presence of hypertension between January 2020 to December 2020. Hypertension was classified according to fourth report. Systematic investigations were done to find out the aetiology of hypertension.  Results: In the study the commonest symptom was generalized oedema in 20 patients (64.5 %), fever in 15 patients (48.3 %), decreased urine output in 12 patients (38.7 %), vomiting in 10 patients (32.2 %), headache in 7 patients (22.5 %), cough& cold in 5 patients (16.1 %), rashes in 4 patients (12.9 %), blurring of vision in 3 patients (9.6 %), altered sensorium in 2 patients (6.4 %) and abdominal pain in one patient. Conclusion: In this study, it has been observed that minimum number of patients were in age group 9 - 12 years patients (19.3 %) and maximum number of patients were in the age group 3 - 9 years (51.6 %) with a M : F ratio of 1 : 0.93. and the main aetiology of hypertension was found to be nephrotic syndrome. In this study maximum patients were underweight; there was no relation between increasing weight and hypertension.