Oscillometric twenty-four-hour ambulatory blood pressure values in healthy children and adolescents: a multicenter trial including 1141 subjects.

Ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) monitoring is increasingly used to evaluate the blood pressure of children and adolescents. The upper normal ABP values in the pediatric age group are still unknown, because reference values based on a sufficiently high number of healthy children have not yet been published. In this multicenter trial, we pooled ABP records of 1141 healthy children and adolescents with a body height between 115 and 185 cm. The study was carried out by seven centers according to a common protocol. The 50th percentile for 24-hour systolic ABP increased moderately with height, from 103 to 113 mm Hg in girls and from 105 to 120 mm Hg in boys. The 50th percentile for diastolic 24-hour means was 66 +/- 1 mm Hg, irrespective of height or gender. Diastolic daytime means were 73 +/- 1 mm Hg, which is remarkably high compared with reference values for casual blood pressure. The mean nocturnal systolic and diastolic ABP (midnight to 6 AM) was 13% +/- 6% and 23% +/- 9% lower compared with the daytime means (8 AM to 8 PM), respectively. This multicenter study provides well-based limits of normal ABP in mid-European children.