The prevalence of post-COVID-19 hypertension in children

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the greatest pandemic in a century. In this study, children with mild COVID-19 infections were evaluated at least 8 weeks after the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test positivity, and the frequency of hypertension (HT) in these children was investigated. These results were compared to those of the control group, which consisted of 32 healthy children in the same age range as the trial group but who did not have COVID-19. This prospective multicenter study was conducted including children aged 10 to 18 years. There were 16 patients (16%) who had elevated systolic blood pressure, while 11 patients (11%) had stage-1 HT and 1 patient (1%) had stage-2 HT. It was revealed that children with COVID-19 had significantly higher systolic and diastolic blood pressures than normal healthy children. The findings of this study contribute toward increasing the understanding of the sequelae of mild COVID-19 in pediatric patients.