2-YEAR CLINICAL FOLLOW-UP OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS AFTER PERCUTANEOUS TRANSLUMINAL ANGIOPLASTY FOR RENOVASCULAR HYPERTENSION

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES. Two percent of children have hypertension, F or those younger than 10 Sears of age, there is a high probability tha t hypertension is secondary, The purpose of this study was to evaluate the merits of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) in the trea tment of childhood renovascular hypertension (RVH) in light of the res ults previously obtained by the authors and to evaluate their stabilit y at 2-year follow-up. METHODS. The positive response of peripheral re nin plasma levels to a single dose of captopril was used as a criterio n for selecting 36 patients between 4 and 15 years of age with renovas cular hypertension, All underwent angiography; in most patients, PTA w as performed in the same session. A 2-year follow-up study was conduct ed. RESULTS. In the 36 patients considered for RVH screening, PTA was successful in 34 of 36 patients (94%). Four of these patients had neur ofibromatosis, The high success rate was confirmed in the 2-year follo w-up study: 34 patients continue to be normotensive. CONCLUSIONS. Perc utaneous transluminal angioplasty treatment of pediatric patients with hypertension has proved to be an effective and valuable method when t he cause of renal artery stenosis is fibromuscular dysplasia, and the long-term results were sufficient to suggest the use of this technique in patients with neurofibromatosis as well.