Normal blood pressure values and percentile curves below 3 years of age in Korea

Abstract

Background : Blood pressure measurement is an important diagnostic tool in pediatric practice. An indirect automatic blood pressure monitor is being used frequently with the oscillometric device. However there are only a few currently available normative data. Therefore, it was the purpose of this study to establish normative blood pressure values for the first 3 years of age by the use of one of oscillometric devices, Dinamap. Method : Oscillometric blood pressure was measured in 2509 infants and young children under 3 years of age from March 2005 to December 2005 in Korea. We measured children's body weight and height to analyze the correlation of blood pressure with them.

Results : Our distribution curves of systolic and diastolic blood pressure were generally in agreement with published values, but showed somewhat higher values in small children. During the first three years of life, blood pressure-weight correlation and blood pressure-height correlation were significant. The correlation between blood pressure and weight seemed slightly better than that of blood pressure and height in this age group.

Conclusion : We established the normal reference values of systolic and diastolic blood pressure in healthy infants and young children below 3 years of age using automatic noninvasive oscillometric method. This blood pressure data may be useful in identifying hypertension in Korean children of this age.