title: Ambulatory arterial stiffness index is increased in hypertensive childhood disease.
abstract: Arterial hypertension in adults is often associated with an increased arterial stiffness, which correlates with the ambulatory arterial stiffness index (AASI) as derived from ambulatory blood pressure (BP) measurements. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate whether children with diagnosed hypertension have an increased AASI as in hypertensive adults. AASI was calculated from 185 ambulatory BP measurements of 114 hypertensive and 71 normotensive, healthy children. Hypertensive children had higher AASI values compared with their normotensive healthy counterparts (0.370 +/- 0.120 versus 0.204 +/- 0.199, p < 0.0001). Children with longer duration of hypertension or a history of primary or secondary aortic coarctation displayed even more elevated AASI values. A receiver operator curve derived cut-off of AASI set at 0.301 distinguished (p < 0.0001) hypertensive from normotensive children with an odds ratio of 8.2, a sensitivity of 81%, and a specificity of 65%. Moreover, AASI correlated with pulse and systolic BP. In conclusion, AASI is elevated in hypertensive children and correlates with the duration and the origin of hypertension in childhood.
authors.affiliation: Division of Paediatric Nephrology, University of Bern, 3010 Berne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Giacomo D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Simonetti
authors.forename: Rodo O
authors.initials: RO
authors.lastname: VON Vigier
authors.forename: Elke
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wühl
authors.forename: Markus G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Mohaupt
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001158:Arteries / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004548:Elasticity; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index