Echocardiographic evaluation of cardiac structure and function in children with hypertension

Arterial hypertension is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in adult population. In recent years, the prevalence of hypertension in children has been increasing, mainly due to increased prevalence of obesity. Similar to adult population, arterial hypertension can also manifest with target organ damage such as left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), increased arterial stiffness, microalbuminuria, brain damage or retinopathy in children and adolescents. Therefore, for diagnostic and therapeutic reasons, echocardiography is recommended as a primary tool for evaluating patients for target-organ abnormalities by assessing the presence or absence of LVH. The ESH hypertension management guideline 2009 for children recommends evaluating the left ventricular mass and microalbuminuria regularly in this case. Echocardiography is a non-invasive fundamental visualization method which has the ability to evaluate heart morphology and function in detail and to assess the progression or regression of hypertrophy. Thus, it is frequently used in children with hypertension. Even though it is easy to perform echocardiography, it is more complicated to assess left ventricular mass in children as this assessment depends on age. The objective of the publication is to review left ventricle parameters evaluation in children (left ventricular mass, LVM, left ventricular mass index, LVMI), particularly in diseases which may lead to higher cardiovascular risk as early as childhood or early adulthood.