The impact of the degree of obesity on the discrepancies between office and ambulatory blood pressure values in youth.

Objectives Obesity is an increasingly frequent problem among children and adolescents, and may lead to blood pressure (BP) increase. The aim of the present study was to assess the prevalence of hypertension, white-coat and masked hypertension in obese adolescents making systematic use of both office BP and 24-h ambulatory BP measurement. The impact of different degrees of obesity on BP and heart rate variability was also investigated. Methods Office and ambulatory BP were obtained in 285 overweight and obese Caucasian adolescents (11–18 years old) and in 180 age- and sex-matched controls. The extent of obesity was quantified using body mass index z score. Results A significant positive rela…