title: Reproducibility of home and ambulatory blood pressure in children and adolescents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the reproducibility of blood pressure measured at home (HBP) in comparison with ambulatory (ABP) and clinic blood pressure (CBP) in children and adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Individuals aged 8-17 years who had been referred for elevated CBP were included. CBP was measured at two visits, HBP on 5 days and ABP for 24 h. A second session including all the above measurements was performed after 8 weeks. The reproducibility of CBP (second visit of each session), HBP (average of days 2-5 of each session) and ABP (average 24-h, awake and asleep) was quantified using test-retest correlations coefficients (r) and the standard deviation of differences (SDD) between repeated measurements.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sixteen individuals were included [mean age 13.3+/-2.9 (SD)] years, range 8-17, nine boys]. According to Task Force CBP criteria, eight were classified as hypertensives, three as high normal and five as normotensives. The reproducibility of HBP (systolic/diastolic r, 0.74/0.82, SDD 7.0/4.3) was superior to that of CBP (r, 0.63/0.80, SDD 10.4/6.3). However, ABP appeared to provide the most reproducible values (r, 0.87/0.84, SDD 5.5/4.3 for 24-h ABP; r, 0.85/0.76, SDD 5.9/5.0 for awake; r, 0.76/0.79, SDD 7.0/5.0 for asleep ABP). Aspects of the diurnal ABP variation were poorly reproducible (r, 0.62/0.14, SDD 6.8/5.5 for awake-asleep ABP difference; r, 0.55/0.26, SDD 0.07/0.11 for awake : asleep ratio).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These data suggest that in children and adolescents home blood pressure measurements are more reproducible than clinic measurements. However, 24-h ambulatory monitoring appears to provide the most reproducible blood pressure values.
authors.affiliation: Hypertension Center, Third University Department of Medicine, Sotiria Hospital, Athens, Greece. gstergi@med.uoa.gr
authors.forename: George S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Stergiou
authors.forename: Christina V
authors.initials: CV
authors.lastname: Alamara
authors.forename: Eleanna V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Salgami
authors.forename: Iraklis N
authors.initials: IN
authors.lastname: Vaindirlis
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dacou-Voutetakis
authors.forename: Theodore D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Mountokalakis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D009819:Office Visits; D015203:Reproducibility of Results