Blood pressure and proteinuria in adolescents

The study was conducted in two groups of factory apprentices including boys aged 15 to 17 years. The first group consisted of a randomly selected 10% sample of 231 apprentices of the total number of 2,300 boys. The second group included 77 boys with casually found proteinuria. In both groups, the distribution of blood pressure and of the body mass and changes in these indices were followed up over a period of two years. The boys with proteinuria had a significantly higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure and a lower body mass index. Their systolic and diastolic blood pressure was rising more steeply in regression to the body mass. The casual finding of asymptomatic proteinuria in juveniles always calls for a long-term follow-up. It signalizes, inter alia, also the presence of a factor raising blood pressure probably independently of body height and body mass.