title: The performance of blood pressure-to-height ratio as a screening measure for identifying children and adolescents with hypertension: a meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The blood pressure-to-height ratio (BPHR) has been shown to be an accurate index for screening hypertension in children and adolescents.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the present study was to perform a meta-analysis to assess the performance of BPHR for the assessment of hypertension.
  
  
  METHODS
  Electronic and manual searches were performed to identify studies of the BPHR. After methodological quality assessment and data extraction, pooled estimates of the sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve and summary receiver operating characteristics were assessed systematically. The extent of heterogeneity for it was assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Six studies were identified for analysis. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio and diagnostic odds ratio values of BPHR, for assessment of hypertension, were 96% [95% confidence interval (CI)=0.95-0.97], 90% (95% CI=0.90-0.91), 10.68 (95% CI=8.03-14.21), 0.04 (95% CI=0.03-0.07) and 247.82 (95% CI=114.50-536.34), respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.9472.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The BPHR had higher diagnostic accuracies for identifying hypertension in children and adolescents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology, The First Hospital of Qinhuangdao, Qinhuangdao, 066000, Hebei Province, China.
authors.forename: Chunming
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Xiaoli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yiming
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Fuzai
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001794:Blood Pressure; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination / Q000379:methods; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis*; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio