Early cardiovascular changes in adolescents with high blood pressure values.

To assess the type and degree of cardiovascular involvement in the early phases of hypertension, 46 adolescents with casual blood pressure (BP) greater than the 95th percentile for age and sex (23 males and 23 females, mean age 14 years) were studied by M-mode echocardiography. Twenty-seven adolescents with casual BP about the 50th percentile, 17 males and 10 females, matched for age, were studied as controls. Adolescents with casual high BP values showed an increase in left ventricular mass (P less than 0.01) and wall thickness to radius (h:R) ratio (P less than 0.01) in comparison to controls. Cardiac index was increased and was correlated with left ventricular mass in hypertensive subjects (P less than 0.05). The correlation between cardiac output and left ventricular mass suggests that cardiac output is a factor in the development of left ventricular hypertrophy.