[Blood pressure tracking: study with children and adolescents with familial history of hypertension].

The purpose of this study is to analyze the evolution of the percentiles of blood pressure in children and adolescents with familial history of arterial hypertension. This is a longitudinal study developed in a community in Fortaleza. Ceará, Brazil. The blood pressure was evaluated in five home visits from January, 2004 to December, 2006. The group was composed of 141 participants, of which 92 were children and 49 adolescents. Of the children, 67.4% remained with no alterations of the percentiles of blood pressure in all the evaluations; of the adolescents, 65.3% remained in the same condition. Most individuals kept their values and percentiles of systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure, and many that did not initially present alterations started to show some during the follow up. As a result, routine monitoring of blood pressure of children and adolescents proves necessary for the early detection and prevention of complications.