HYPERTENSION IN THE YOUNG

Abstract

Neither textbooks nor more comprehensive works on diseases of children have much to say about hypertension. Hecht,¹in Pfaundler and Schlossman's Handbook on Diseases of Children, remarked: "Lasting increase of blood pressure is found particularly in cases of chronic nephritis, but also in scarlet fever nephritis after a few days. A further increase of blood pressure is often a precursor of uremia." A number of children with increased blood pressure, ranging in age from 6 to 16 years, was examined and treated at the Mayo Clinic during a period of about eight years. The progress of the disease after dismissal could not always be ascertained, with the exception of a few recent reports, and necropsies were not obtained. Nevertheless, the twenty-five cases serving as a basis for this report offer features of significance. According to Judson and Nicholson,₂and Faber and James,³the systolic blood pressure does