Hypertension and Cardiovascular Manifestations in Children and Adolescents with Secreting Adrenal Tumors

Hypertension in children and adolescents is rare. Although there are many publications about hypertension in children suffering from pheochromocytoma or aldosterone producing tumors, there is limited data on hypertension in androgen or mixed hormone producing tumors of adrenal glands in pediatric groups. Paucity of data on this topic may be in part due to rarity of these tumors. The objective of this study was to shed more light on the prevalence of hypertension and its outcome in children and adolescents suffering from functional adrenal tumors. Nine patients, 5 girls and 4 boys, aged 2-16 years who were referred to the private office of one of the authors (A.A MG), or the department of endocrinology at Taleghani general hospital between 1985-2009 were studied. Imaging, and biochemical tests, using commercial kits, and histopathologic evaluation were done at the Taleghani hospital. All patients except one had hypertension. In three patients hypertension was severe and in one patient it had caused left ventricular hypertrophy. This is the first study dealing with the problem of hypertension in secreting adrenal tumors among pediatric and adolescents groups in Iran. Importance, clinical presentation and pathogenesis of hypertension in this unusual disease are discussed.