Hypertension a Tough Diagnosis in Children

Every time Dr. David Kaelber -- a physician at MetroHealth -- would diagnose a child with high blood pressure, the conversation usually played out something like this... Based on these conversations, Dr. Kaelber had a hunch that high blood pressure in kids, especially kids who are not overweight, goes largely undiagnosed. He tested his hypothesis by developing a computer program that trolled thousands of electronic records in MetroHealth's system. He found that 75 percent of kids with hypertension never get diagnosed. His work was selected as one of the ten most significant studies of the year by the American Heart Association. When ideastream's Eric Wellman spoke with Kaelber, he said pediatric hypertension is a tough diagnosis because what's considered normal varies by height and age.