PHARMACOLOGIC TREATMENT OF HYPERTENSION IN CHILDREN

A. Gregorič

The aim of the article is to define hypertension in children and it's nonpharmacologic and pharmacologic treatment. The differences between the treatment of hypertension in children and adults are stressed. The main groups of antihypertensive drugs in paediactrics are more detailed described: ACE inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, beta - blockers, diuretics, direct vasodilators, central nervous system stimulators of alfa₂ adrenergic receptors and alfa - blockers. Further the use of antihypertensive drugs in different field of everyday clinical practice is discussed (hypertensive emergencies, essential hypertension, the hypertensive athlete, neonatal hypertension and hypertension in chronic renal failure). In the end the author invites the paediatricans to join the intensive research of drugs for children that started in recent years all over the world.