Childhood obstructive sleep apnoea: Hypertension was not mentioned

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7513.405-b

BMJ 2005;331:405 (13 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7513.405-b

Letter

Childhood obstructive sleep apnoea

Hypertension was not mentioned

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—An important effect is missing in the editorialon childhood obstructive sleep apnoea by Kotagal.¹ The neuropsychologicalsequelae of this condition were mentioned, but another effectwas not—namely, high blood pressure.

This omission is not uncommon as shown by a report on the globalburden of hypertension.² Currently, there is good evidence—forexample, the report by the Tucson Group³—that childhoodobstructive sleep apnoea leads to raised blood pressure. Ourunpublished data on childhood obstructive sleep apnoea and 24hour ambulatory blood pressure show that 18% of children hadnocturnal hypertension only. Childhood obstructive sleep apnoeawas also associated with blood pressure dysregulation that couldlead to lower blood pressure in a subgroup of children. Othercardiovascular consequences such as left ventricular hypertrophyand altered sympathetic activation were also identified. Thereport from our centre also showed that snoring children withoutobstructive sleep apnoea had higher blood pressure . . . [Full text of this article]

Daniel K Ng, consultant paediatrician

dkkng@ha.org.hk
Department of Paediatrics, Kwong Wah Hospital, Kowloon, Hong Kong 852

Chung-hong Chan, research assistant, Ka-li Kwok, senior medical officer, Lettie C Leung, senior medical officer, Pok-yu Chow, specialist medical officer

Department of Paediatrics, Kwong Wah Hospital, Kowloon, Hong Kong 852