ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Hypertension is defined as average systolic blood pressure and/or diastolic blood pressure that is > or =95th percentile for gender, age, and height on > or =three occasions. Knowing that blood pressure values increase in children as they grow older, the purposes of this study were to measure blood pressure by an oscillometric device and to determine normal values and percentile curves for children. METHODS: Systolic and diastolic blood pressures were measured twice with an oscillometric device in 3,545 boys and 3,145 girls under six years of age, in Seoul. Using this data, we determined average blood pressure values and percentile curves based on gender and age; we subdivided these values into blood pressures of 50th, 90th, 95th, and 99th percentiles, by percentile of height. The regression coefficients and standard deviations of the systolic and diastolic blood pressure values were obtained from linear regression models. RESULTS: Older boys and girls had higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure values. Older boys and girls in the same percentile of height for age had higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure values. Taller boys and girls within the same age group had higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure values. CONCLUSION: Blood pressure standards based on gender, age, and height were obtained via an oscillometric method. Llimitation of this study is that the study population was not from the whole country, but exclusively from Seoul. Nonetheless, the data from this study will be helpful in diagnosing and managing hypertension in Korean children.