Press？o arterial em crian？as portadoras de doen？a falciforme

objective: to evaluate blood pressure (bp) in children with sickle cell disease (scd). methods: observational descriptive study of bp in 70 children with scd. bp values were classified according to the v brazilian guidelines in arterial hypertension. patients were divided into groups according to genotype (hbss, hbsc) and according to age: group i, three to four years and 11 months; group ii, five to eight years and 11 months; and group iii, nine to 13 years and 11 months. the student's t test and anova were used for statistical analyses, and the level of significance was set at p<0.05. results: mean and standard deviation (sd) of systolic bp (sbp) (mmhg) were 95.9±11.45, and of diastolic bp (dbp), 62.6±7.78. means according to age group were: group i - sbp 91.2±5.78 and dbp 61.5±7.15; group ii - sbp 97.3±10.86 and dbp 64.4±7.89; and group iii - sbp 100.0±9.88 and dbp 61.5±4.94. results showed that 5.7% of the patients had hypertension and 8.6%, pre-hypertension. mean sbp and dbp of hbsc and hbss patients did not differ. conclusions: further studies should be conducted to assess bp in patients with scd and determine possible causes of hypertension in these patients.