Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring in Chronic Haemodialysis Children with End-Stage Renal Failure

Dr. Amira Peco-Antić, Nephrology Department, University Children’s Hospital, Tiršova 10, 11000 Belgrade (Serbia) Dear Sir, According to the data from the literature, there are different opinions about predialy-sis (PreD) and postdialysis (PostD) blood pressures (BPs) [1,2] and the direct effect of hypervolaemia on PreD and PostD BPs [3]. To clarify these controversial opinions, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) was performed in two groups of patients: group A consisted of 13 children with end-stage renal failure, aged 15.15 ± 5.58 years, on chronic haemodialysis from 2 to 156 (mean 45.3) months, of whom 4 where hypertensive and 9 normotensive; group B consisted of 19 children with chronic mild hypertension (essential or renal) and normal global renal function, aged 15.28 ± 2.27 years. BP was measured with an oscillometer, model 90206 (SpaceLabs, Inc., Redmond, Wash., USA). Blunted circa-dian BP rhythm (nocturnal decrease of BP to less than 10% of daytime values) was observed in 84.62% of children from group A and 31.58% from group B (p = 0.0037). PreD and PostD systolic, diastolic and mean arterial BPs did not differ significantly and were correlated with InterD BP (r = 0.9; p < 0.01) (fig. 1). This is probably due to the fact