Comparison of Childhood Hypertension Guidelines

Hypertension (HT) is seen with increasing frequency in childhood. Various guidelines have been published to better evaluate these patients. The most frequently used of these are; The 4th Report (The 4th Report-2004) updated and published by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) National High Blood Pressure Education Program (NHBPEP) Working Group in 2004, a guideline prepared by the European Society of Hypertension in 2016 (ESH-2016), the last one is the guideline prepared by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2017 (AAP-2017). Although these guidelines have some similarities, there are serious differences between them. The 4th Report-2004 and ESH-2016 guidelines use blood pressure (BP) percentile tables based on age and height previously determined in American children. Then, new tables were created by extracting the measurements of obese children and these tables were used in AAP-2017. From the age of 16 in ESH-2016 and 13 in AAP-2017, it is recommended that BP evaluations should be made according to adult guidelines. Evaluation of the hypertensive patient, Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM) criteria, the timing of laboratory tests and treatment differ according to guidelines. As a result; since universal BP tables covering all children around the world have not yet been created; age, ethnic and geographical conditions should be taken into account when evaluating which guidelines the office BP and ABPM should follow. By following the currently published guidelines, it will be possible to reduce future cardiovascular events.