Increased common carotid artery intima media thickness in adolescent hypertension: results from the Debrecen Hypertension study.
BACKGROUND
The aim of the present work was to investigate intima media thickness (IMT) in healthy and in hypertensive adolescents and its influencing factors.


METHODS
103 hypertensive and 58 healthy adolescents were studied. IMT was measured in the common carotid artery using B-mode ultrasonography. Additionally, laboratory parameters (blood glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL- and LDL-cholesterols) and left ventricular mass indices were obtained.


RESULTS
IMT in the common carotid artery was higher in hypertensive adolescents (means +/- SD: 0.55 +/- 0.11 mm) than in healthy control subjects (0.48 +/- 0.08 mm, p < 0.001). Similarly, a higher left ventricular mass index was measured in hypertensive (103.2 +/- 30.6 g/m(2)) than in healthy teenagers (91.1 +/- 25.2 g/m(2), p < 0.001). In general, IMT in adolescents was associated with age, weight, body mass index, left ventricular mass index and average systolic and diastolic blood pressure values of the subjects. By assessing the multivariate association between IMT and other factors, intima-media thickness was only associated with age and left ventricular mass index of the hypertensive subjects and was independent from all the investigated factors in normotensive controls.


CONCLUSIONS
Our data suggest an ongoing target-organ damage in adolescent hypertension. These patients need to be subjected to early diagnostic methods, treatment and a regular follow-up, in order to avoid severe clinical manifestations of secondary target-organ damage due to hypertension.
Páll
Dénes
D
Department of Internal Medicine, University of Debrecen, Hungary.
Settakis
Georgios
G
Katona
Eva
E
Csiba
Lászlo
L
Kakuk
György
G
Limburg
Martien
M
Bereczki
Dániel
D
Fülesdi
Béla
B
D000293:Adolescent; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D006814:Hungary / Q000453:epidemiology; D006973:Hypertension / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology; D012307:Risk Factors; D017539:Tunica Intima / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*