Reference ranges for blood pressure in preschool Australians, obtained by oscillometry.
OBJECTIVE
To derive reference centiles for blood pressure in children aged 1-6 years which seek to address shortcomings in available reference ranges.


METHODS
Prospective cohort study of 2876 children in Perth, Western Australia, commenced in 1989 with serial blood pressure measurements through early childhood obtained by oscillometry under standardized conditions.


RESULTS
Gender-specific reference centile charts for systolic and diastolic blood pressure, (i) across ages 1-6 years and (ii) across the range of corrected Body Mass Index values at ages 1, 3 and 6 years, were generated by fitting linear models with both fixed and random effects.


CONCLUSIONS
Reference values for blood pressure for young children are of clinical use and may be of long-term predictive value.
Blake
K V
KV
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia. kblake@cyllene.uwa.edu.au
Gurrin
L C
LC
Evans
S F
SF
Newnham
J P
JP
Landau
L I
LI
Stanley
F J
FJ
Beilin
L J
LJ
D001794:Blood Pressure; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009991:Oscillometry; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012016:Reference Values; D014904:Western Australia