Left ventricular hypertrophy in children with blood pres- sures in the upper quintile of the distribution. Hyper- tension 3

SUMMARY From echocardlographic measurements of left heart dimensions, cardiac output was estimated in 264 school children whose systolic blood pressure persisted in the lowest, middle, or highest quintile of the distribution for their age and sex. Children with blood pressure in the upper quintile were taller, heavier, and more obese. Echocardiographically determined left ventricular wall mass, corrected for body size, was significantly greater in these children than those in the lower quintiles of blood pressure. These children dis-played a continuum of cardiac output. Those with the highest cardiac output in the upper blood pressure quin-tile had the greatest left ventricular wall mass. (Hypertension 3: 669-675, 1981) KEYWORDS • left ventricular hypertrophy • childhood • hypertension • obesity STUDIES of blood pressure (BP) in school chil-dren document that BP rises progressivelyduring childhood,1" " and that, within the same age group, there is also a wide BP distribution.8" * The specific hemodynamic factors responsible for either the progressive increase or the wide distribution are not known. The hemodynamic determinants of BP level are car-diac output and systemic vascular resistance. Thus