Assessment of Vascular Function in Hypertensive Children

University Of Texas Hlth Sci Ctr Houston, Houston TX

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Hypertension with its related comorbidities is one of the leading causes of death in the US. While it takes years for hard endpoints such as stroke and heart attack to occur, it has become clear that this disease process begins much earlier in life. The prevalence of hypertension and obesity among our nation's children has increased significantly over the last decade leading to questions regarding treatment and long term outcomes in this patient population. Conventional endpoints are of little value in children so focus has turned to surrogate markers such as left ventricular hypertrophy, carotid artery intimal medial thickness, and microabluminuria. This study's aim is to better define the relationship between hypertension and functional vascular abnormalities - specifically brachial artery flow mediated dilatation and small and large vessel arterial compliance as measured by radial pulse wave contour analysis. By measuring these parameters in hypertensive children stratified according to severity of hypertension and matched controls, we plan to show that endothelial dependent vasodilatory response is depressed dependent on the severity of hypertension and that compliance in both small and large arteries in decreased accordingly.