ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Hypertension (HTN) in children and adolescents has gained ground in cardiovascular medicine thanks to the progress made in several areas of pathophysiological and clinical research. It has been possible to look at blood pressure (BP) values of children and adolescents not just in the artificial environment of the physician’s office but in the more meaningful context of daily life conditions. It has also become possible to look at the presence of subclinical organ damage through measures and markers much more sensitive than those available years ago, with the opportunity to detect incipient modifications of organ function and structure previously impossible to discover, thus gaining a more precise assessment of the clinical significance of the existing BP abnormalities. Additionally, it has been possible to relate adult HTN and organ damage to several abnormalities of the younger age group, for example, overweight and tachycardia, thus adding to the rationale of extending at least some of the cardiovascular prevention strategies, previously derived for adults, to preadult individuals (1).
