ABPM vs office blood pressure to define blood pressure control in treated hypertensive paediatric renal transplant recipients

While 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is an established tool for monitoring antihypertensive therapy in adults, data in children are scarce. We retrospectively analysed whether office blood pressure (BP) is reliable for the diagnosis of BP control in 26 treated hypertensive paediatric renal transplants. Controlled office BP was defined as the mean of three replicate systolic and diastolic BP recordings less than or equal to the 95th age-, sex- and height-matched percentile on the three-outpatient visits closest to ABPM. Controlled ABPM was defined as systolic and diastolic daytime BP < or =95th distribution adjusted height- and sex-related percentile of the adapted ABPM reference. Eight recipients (30%) with controlled office BP were in fact categorized as having non-controlled BP by ABPM criteria. Overall, when office BP and ABPM were compared using the Bland and Altman method, the 95% limits of agreement between office and daytime values ranged from -12.6 to 34.1 mmHg for systolic and -23.9 to 31.7 mmHg for diastolic BP, and the mean difference was 10.7 and 3.9 mmHg respectively. Office readings miss a substantial number of recipients who are hypertensive by ABPM criteria. Undertreatment of hypertension could be avoided if ABPM is applied as an adjunct to office readings.