International studies estimate that up to five percent of all children and adolescents have high blood pressure. This corresponds to up to 68,000 Danish children and adolescents with treatment-requiring high blood pressure, but only a very small portion of them are diagnosed because high blood pressure is often a symptomless condition among children and adolescents.

"Unnoticed and untreated high blood pressure can lead to serious kidney and cardiovascular diseases later in life, so it is very important that we become better at detecting the condition early. Thanks to the funding, we can begin to investigate how many children and adolescents in Denmark have high blood pressure, what factors increase the risk of high blood pressure, and how we can best detect the condition in an effective and child-friendly way," says Lise Fischer Mikkelsen.

Lise Fischer Mikkelsen from the Department of Clinical Medicine and the Research Unit at Children and Adolescents will, along with her colleagues, use the funding from the Karen Elise Jensen Foundation to gain new knowledge to improve the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of high blood pressure in children and adolescents.

This article is based on a press release from the Regional Hospital Gødstrup.

Contact

PhD student and physician Lise Fischer Mikkelsen
Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine and
Regional Hospital Gødstrup, Research Unit at Children and Adolescents
Phone: +45 42 44 31 67
E-mail: Lisehr@rm.dk