Masked Hypertension in Pediatric Heart Transplant Recipients.

BACKGROUND: Masked hypertension (HTN), especially, isolated nocturnal HTN (INH) has been shown to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) but is not studied well in pediatric heart transplant (PHT) patients. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is known to identify patients with HTN but is not used routinely in PHT. METHODS: A single-center, prospective, cross-sectional study of PHT recipients was performed to observe the incidence of masked HTN using 24-h ABPM. The relationship between ABPM parameters and clinical variables was assessed using Spearman correlation coefficient. p value < 0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: ABPM was performed in 34 patients, mean age 14 ± 5 years, median 5.5 years post-PHT. All patients had normal cardiac function, left ventricular mass index and blood pressure measurements in the clinic. Four patients had known prior HTN and on medications, one of them was uncontrolled. Of the remaining 30 patients, 18 new patients were diagnosed with masked HTN, of which 14 had INH. Diurnal variation was abnormal in 82% (28/34) patients. 24-h diastolic blood pressure (DBP) index correlated with glomerular filtration rate (GFR) (r = - 0.44, p = 0.01). There was no correlation between other ABPM parameters with tacrolimus trough levels. CONCLUSIONS: ABPM identified masked HTN in 60% of patients, with majority being INH. Abnormal circadian BP patterns were present in 82% and an association was found between GFR and DBP parameters. HTN, especially INH, is under-recognized in PHT recipients and ABPM has a role in their long-term care.

COVID-19 infection in pediatric solid organ transplant patients.

BACKGROUND: Adult SOT recipients with COVID-19 have higher mortality rates when compared to general population. There is paucity of data on outcomes in pediatric SOT recipients. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study investigating the prevalence of COVID-19 infection and outcomes in pediatric SOT (heart, liver, and kidney) recipients. We extracted demographic and clinical characteristics and COVID-19 testing (PCR or [Ab] test) results from medical records. Clinical characteristics were compared between patients who were positive for COVID-19 (PCR or Ab) and those who did not, using Mann-Whitney, Student's t test, or chi-square test. p value <.05 was statistically significant. RESULTS: A total of 108 SOT recipients with a median age of 13.1 (8.4, 17.8) years and median 4.2 (2.7, 7.9) years from transplant were checked for COVID-19 via a PCR or Ab test. A positive PCR was confirmed in 10 patients (9.3%), while 12 patients (11.1%) were positive for COVID-19 Ab. The patients who tested positive in our cohort were 9/50 (18%) heart, 6/68 (8.8%) kidney, and 7/50 (14%) liver transplant recipients. There were no differences in the clinical characteristics between patients with and without COVID-19 infection. All patients were either asymptomatic (50%) or had self-limiting symptoms. No changes were made to the immunosuppressive regimen. Only one patient was hospitalized and none had an oxygen requirement. CONCLUSIONS: In our cohort of pediatric SOT recipients, COVID-19 infection was asymptomatic or mild. This data may aid clinicians in counseling patients and families in this increased-risk population.