Chapters authored
Circadian Rhythm of Blood Pressure in Children and Adolescents
Everything in our body is under control of central and peripheral pacemakers that regulate all the processes and functions according to the day-night and sleep-wake cycles. Cardiovascular system is not an exception. Blood pressure, heart rate, and even vascular resistance have circadian patterns. Nowadays new diagnostic devices provide all necessary data on 24-h variation of the hemodynamic parameters in patients of all ages. Due to the complex regulation mechanisms which underline this variation, circadian patterns are not the same in different people. Why do we need to assess these rhythms? First of all, it is a key to the early diagnosis of different cardiovascular diseases and their complications. When the circadian rhythm is impaired, for example, the level of blood pressure is within the normal ranges, but it does not decline at night or even is higher than at daytime, there is an increased risk of the development of arterial hypertension and target organ damage. There is a large amount of studies on 24-h rhythm of blood pressure in adults. On the contrary, in children there is still a lack of data on this topic.
Part of the book: Chronobiology