title: Percentiles for central blood pressure and pulse wave velocity in children and adolescents recorded with an oscillometric device.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In adults with arterial hypertension, measuring arterial stiffness by pulse wave velocity (PWV) can determine the extent of cardiovascular subclinical organ damage. PWV has independent predictive value for cardiovascular events, but there are currently no recommendations for measuring PWV in children. In addition, central systolic blood pressure (cSBP) strongly reflects vascular changes. The aim of this study was to establish percentiles for cSBP and PWV in children and adolescents to evaluate and classify altered vascular function in youths.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We measured PWV and cSBP with an oscillometric device with inbuilt ARCSolver-algorithm (estimated by using the brachial waveform) and calculated smoothed reference percentiles for 1445 children and young adults (49.5% female; 13.41 ± 2.80 years, range 8-22 years; PWV 4.67 ± 0.34 m/s; cSBP 100.7 ± 8.9 mmHg) using the LMS-method based on age and height. PWV and cSBP increased with age and height, but slightly differently for girls and boys, possibly reflecting different growth patterns. Between 8 and 21 years, PWV increased from 4.29 ± 0.32 to 4.98 ± 0.33 m/s in girls and from 4.27 ± 0.18 to 5.22 ± 0.46 m/s in boys. While girls showed a minor increase in cSBP (91.2 ± 7.5 to 109.1 ± 8.6 mmHg), the cSBP in boys ranged from 90.0 ± 5.8 to 110.5 ± 9.6 mmHg with a more pronounced increase between 14 and 17 years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These percentiles for PWV and cSBP can help define arterial stiffness in youths and contribute to risk stratification for cardiovascular disease. For example, in children with prehypertension or isolated systolic hypertension, PWV and cSBP can provide additional information about the function of the vascular system, thereby strengthening intervention strategies.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Preventive Pediatrics, Department of Sport and Health Sciences, Technische Universität, München, Germany. Electronic address: Julia.Elmenhorst@tum.de.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Elmenhorst
authors.affiliation: Medical Practice for Pediatric Cardiology Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hulpke-Wette
authors.affiliation: Institute of Preventive Pediatrics, Department of Sport and Health Sciences, Technische Universität, München, Germany.
authors.forename: Christiane
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barta
authors.affiliation: Großhadern/Dr. von Hauner'sches Kinderspital, Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität, München, Germany.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dalla Pozza
authors.affiliation: Klinik Hochried der Katholischen Jugendfürsorge Augsburg, Murnau, Germany.
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Springer
authors.affiliation: Institute of Preventive Pediatrics, Department of Sport and Health Sciences, Technische Universität, München, Germany.
authors.forename: Renate
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Oberhoffer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000465:Algorithms; D000886:Anthropometry; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis; D008297:Male; D009991:Oscillometry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D063177:Pulse Wave Analysis; D012016:Reference Values; D012737:Sex Factors; D013599:Systole; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Arterial stiffness; Children; Non-invasive