Hypertension in the Pediatric Kidney Transplant Recipient

The 2009 Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) clinical practice guideline on the monitoring, management, and treatment of kidney transplant recipients is intended to assist the practitioner caring for adults and children after kidney transplantation. The guideline development process followed an evidence-based approach, and management recommendations are based on systematic reviews of relevant treatment trials. Critical appraisal of the quality of the evidence and the strength of recommendations followed the Grades of Recommendation Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. The guideline makes recommendations for immunosuppression, graft monitoring, as well as prevention and treatment of infection, cardiovascular disease, malignancy, and other complications that are common in kidney transplant recipients, including hematological and bone disorders. Limitations of the evidence, especially on the lack of definitive clinical outcome trials, are discussed and suggestions are provided for future research.

Twenty-four-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is an essential tool in the diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring of arterial hypertension in children. The statistical use of pediatric ABPM reference values has been compromised by the non-Gaussian distribution of 24-h blood pressure (BP) in children. To develop distribution-adjusted pediatric ABPM reference tables. From cross-sectional ABPM data obtained in 949 healthy children and adolescents aged 5-20 years, a set of reference tables was developed for 24-h, daytime and night-time mean values of systolic, diastolic, mean arterial BP and heart rate, utilizing the LMS method to account for the variably skewed distribution of ABPM data. Age- and gender-specific estimates of the distribution median (M), coefficient of variation (S) and degree of skewness (L) were obtained by a maximum-likelihood curve-fitting technique. The estimates of, and can be used to normalize ABPM data to gender and age or height. Re-application of the established, and values in the reference population confirmed appropriate normalization of ABPM values. Height standard deviation scores (SDS), body mass index (BMI) SDS and heart rate SDS were independent positive predictors of 24-h systolic BP SDS. Diastolic 24-h mean BP SDS showed a weak correlation with BMI SDS only. The use of LMS reference tables permits calculation of appropriate SDS values for ABPM in children. Whereas systolic 24-h BP is independently correlated with age, relative height and obesity, diastolic values are almost independent of age and relative height, and weakly associated with relative obesity.

Echocardiographic strain imaging, also known as deformation imaging, has been developed as a means to objectively quantify regional myocardial function. First introduced as post-processing of tissue Doppler imaging velocity converted to strain and strain rate, strain imaging has more recently also been derived from digital speckle tracking analysis. Strain imaging has been used to gain greater understanding into the pathophysiology of cardiac ischemia and infarction, primary diseases of the myocardium, and the effects of valvular disease on myocardial function, and to advance our understanding of diastolic function. Strain imaging has also been used to quantify abnormalities in the timing of mechanical activation for heart failure patients undergoing cardiac resynchronization pacing therapy. Further advances, such as 3-dimensional speckle tracking strain imaging, have emerged to provide even greater insight. Strain imaging has become established as a robust research tool and has great potential to play many roles in routine clinical practice to advance the care of the cardiovascular patient. This perspective reviews the physiology of myocardial strain, the technical features of strain imaging using tissue Doppler imaging and speckle tracking, their strengths and weaknesses, and the state-of-the-art present and potential future clinical applications. Copyright © 2011 American College of Cardiology Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.