ASH: Two Factors Predict Masked Hypertension in Kids

Fat parents have fat, hypertensive kids.

Children with normal blood pressure readings in the doctor's office may have masked hypertension, but Brazilian researchers said they've found possible clues to the hidden condition -- hypertensive parents and too much weight around the middle.

Risk of masked hypertension, characterized by normal readings in the doctor's office and elevated ambulatory blood pressure, was 47% higher in children with a family history of hypertension (OR 1.47, P=0.044), according to Claudia Salgado, MD, PhD, of the Federal University of Goiás in Brazil.

Children also had more than twice the normal risk of masked hypertension if they had a ratio of waist-to-hip circumference of 0.9 or higher (OR 2.19, P=0.042), indicating abdominal obesity, Salgado reported at the American Society of Hypertension meeting here.

"This suggests that children and adolescents with those predisposing factors should have their ambulatory blood pressure evaluated and monitored, despite showing normal blood pressure at the doctor's office," Salgado told MedPage Today.

Kudos, fatsos.