title: Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in children with aortic coarctation and kidney transplantation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) has been found to be of significant importance in clinical practice because numerous blood pressure (BP) measurements may be made throughout the 24-hour period.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the clinical utility of ABPM in children with secondary hypertension.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied 37 patients (21 boys and 16 girls), with a mean age of 16.4 +/- 4.1 years, after kidney transplantation and 38 patients (27 boys and 11 girls), with a mean age of 10.2 +/- 2.1 years, after surgical correction of aortic coarctation. Data, expressed as mean +/- SD, were analyzed after dividing the patients into 4 groups. Group A consisted of 25 patients receiving antihypertensive therapy; group B included 12 patients not receiving antihypertensive therapy. Group C included 25 patients operated on before 3 years of age (8 +/- 7 months of age); group D included 13 patients operated on after 3 years of age (74 +/- 29 months of age).
  
  
  RESULTS
  In groups A and B, casual BP measurement showed that 16 of 37 patients (43%) were hypertensive; 24-hour ABPM detected a larger number of patients who were hypertensive (23 of 37, 62%); there were 18 in group A and 5 in group B. In groups C and D, casual BP measurement identified 6 of 38 (15%) patients as hypertensive, whereas 24-hour ABPM again identified a higher number (13 of 38, 34%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings confirm that 24-hour ABPM is more sensitive than casual BP in detecting abnormal BP in patients at high risk for secondary hypertension.
authors.affiliation: Sports Medicine Department and the Nephrology and Dialysis Department, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital Research Institute, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Giordano
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Matteucci
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Calzolari
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Turchetta
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rizzoni
authors.forename: B S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Alpert
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001017:Aortic Coarctation / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity