Inadequate blood pressure control demonstrated by ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in pediatric renal transplant recipients

BACKGROUND: Adequate BP control in RT recipients should not rely only by normal office BP but also on normal 24-hour BP. This study aims to assess adequacy of BP control by ABPM and to assess ABPM parameters associated with LVMI in pediatric RT recipients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients aged 5-20 years who have been followed after RT were enrolled. Demographic data and BP assessed by office and ABPM were collected. Echocardiography was performed to detect LVMI. RESULTS: Thirty RT recipients (18 males) with median age of 15 years (IQR 13-18.5) were included. Among 23 patients who were taking antihypertensive drugs, uncontrolled hypertension was detected in 34.8% and 78.3% by office BP measurement and ABPM, respectively. Thus, the difference in prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension observed by ABPM versus office BP was 43.5%. Those seven patients who were not taking antihypertensive drugs because of normal office BP, four patients (57.1%) had masked hypertension and one patient had elevated BP. Fifteen patients have progression of LVH after RT. Multivariate analysis revealed that age (OR 1.369, 95%CI 0.985-1.904, P-value = 0.062) had a trend to be associated with progression of LVH. Moreover, nighttime systolic BP z-score was significantly correlated with LVMI (r = 0.551, P-value = 0.002). CONCLUSION: The difference in prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension uncovered by ABPM was 43.5%. Nighttime SBP z-score was significantly correlated with LVMI.