Guidelines of the Pediatric Section of the Polish Society of Hypertension on diagnosis and treatment of arterial hypertension in children and adolescents

Presented recommendations are an extended and actualized version of paediatric recommendations of Polish Society of Hypertension published in 2015. Since then, new studies have appeared on this subject, introducing a new classification of hypertension, newly described principles of management in risk groups and methods of assessing hypertensive target organ damage. The presented updated recommendations included changes introduced in the 2016 European Society of Hypertension recommendations and Recommendations of Children's Memorial Health Institute in Warsaw. Recently published guidelines of American Academy of Pediatrics have been discussed. In the presented issue of guidelines, epidemiological information on the occurrence and incidence of hypertension in developmental age was added and classification of blood pressure values was updated. Subchapters on diagnosis and organ damage assessment, principles of diagnosis and treatment of hypertension in children with diabetes, chronic kidney disease and a subsection discussing diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties with setting blood pressure targets were revised. In addition, the principles of early diagnosis of arterial hypertension in post-hospital care in children born before 33 weeks of gestation published in 2018 as recommendations of the Polish Neonatal Society have been also taken into account.