Evaluation of Active Renin Concentration in A Cohort of Adolescents with Primary Hypertension

Our study aimed to assess active renin concentration in children with primary hypertension. Thus, we evaluated active renin concentration, clinical parameters, office and ambulatory blood pressure, and biochemical parameters in 51 untreated adolescents with primary hypertension (median: 14.4 [interquartile range—IQR: 13.8–16.8] years) and 45 healthy adolescents. Active renin concentration did not differ between patients with hypertension and healthy children (median: 28.5 [IQR: 21.9–45.2] vs. 24.9 [IQR: 16.8–34.3] [pg/mL], p = 0.055). In the whole group of 96 children, active renin concentration correlated positively with serum potassium and office and ambulatory systolic and diastolic blood pressures. Among children with hypertension, patients with isolated systolic hypertension had lower renin concentration than patients with systolic-diastolic hypertension (26.2 [IQR: 18.6–34.2] vs. 37.8 [IQR: 27.0–49.6] [pg/mL], p = 0.014). The active renin concentration did not differ between patients with isolated systolic hypertension and healthy children. In multivariate analysis, diastolic blood pressure Z-score (beta = 0.238, 95 confidence interval [0.018–0.458], p = 0.035) was the only predictor of active renin concentration in the studied children. We concluded that active renin concentration is positively associated with blood pressure and potassium in children, and diastolic blood pressure was the strongest predictor of renin level. Patients with isolated systolic hypertension may differ from patients with systolic-diastolic hypertension in less severe activation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system.