Arterial hypertension in children and adolescents: a modern view at the problem (a literature review). Part 1

Abstract

The analysis of modern national and foreign literature on the prevalence, causes, mechanisms, and criteria of hypertension in children and adolescents was carried out. The aim of the study was to provide modern data on the epidemiology, risk factors, mechanisms of development and diagnostic criteria for hypertension in children and adolescents, based on a review of scientific sources. Materials and methods. A search was conducted in the scientific-metric systems Google Scolar, PubMed, Cohrane Database from 2011 to 2021 using the following keywords: epidemiology, risk factors for systemic hypertension, mechanisms of development, coronavirus disease, adolescents, criteria for diagnostics of systemic arterial hypertension. Conclusions. Scientific sources of the last decade have identified the main risk factors and the most common mechanisms of hypertension, systematized approaches to classification as well as diagnostic criteria for the disease at a young age. This disease has recently become more common among children younger than 18 years varying from 2 % to 20 % of cases. It is worth noting that the coronavirus pandemic has brought about changes in the study of hypertension in children and adults, serving as a leading factor of severe course and mortality, but research on this matter is currently under way. The significance of certain pathogenetic factors in the genesis of different variants of arterial hypertension in children has not been fully identified up to date, and further study on their relationship with hemodynamic parameters in children and adolescents is needed. Generally, scientists around the world are focusing their attention on early diagnosis of elevated blood pressure in childhood, while the process is reversible, to prevent complications and a more severe course of the disease.