Blood Pressure-to-height Ratio Research Articles

BLOOD PRESSURE TO HEIGHT RATIO AS A SCREENING TOOL FOR HYPERTENSION IN SCHOOL GOING ADOLESCENTS AGED 12-18 YEARS IN BHAVNAGAR, GUJARAT

Background: The age, gender, and height, percentiles requirements for the ‘gold-standard’ diagnosis of hypertension and prehypertension in adolescents make it time-consuming for clinicians and difficult-to-use by non-professionals. Simplified diagnostic tools are therefore needed. The use of blood pressure-to-height ratio (BPHR), systolic (SBPHR) and diastolic (DBPHR), has been reported in Han adolescents, and it requires validation in other racial groups. The diagnostic accuracy of SBPHR and DBPHR in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India was therefore studied. Methods: From a population of 1000 school going Caucasian adolescents aged 12-18 years from two schools; Blood pressures were measured using standard procedures. Hypertension and prehypertension (HTPHT) were defined according to the 2004 Working Group normative tables. ROC curve analyses were used to assess the diagnostic accuracy of BPHR in defining HTPHT in this population. Sex-specific threshold values for SBPHR and DBPHR were determined and thereafter used to define HTPHT. The sensitivity/specificity of this method was determined. Results: The accuracy of SBPHR and DBPHR in diagnosing HTPHT, in both sexes, was >92%. The optimal threshold ratio for prehypertension was 0.725/0.465 in boys and 0.745/0.465 in girls; while for hypertension, they were 0.765/0.495 in boys and 0.795/0.515 in girls. The sensitivity and specificity of this method was >88%. Conclusions: The use of blood pressure-to-height ratio BPHR is valid, simple, and accurate in this population. Keywords: Adolescents; Blood pressure-to-height ratio; Diagnosis; Prehypertension; Hypertension; Bhavnagar; School

Body Mass Index and Blood Pressure-to-Height Ratio in Predicting Incidence of Hypertension in Serbian Children.

Background: A new method using blood pressure-to-height ratio for diagnosing elevated blood pressure/hypertension in children has been introduced recently. We aimed to compare blood pressure-to-height ratio (BPHR) and Body Mass Index (BMI) in predicting incidence of hypertension (HTN). Methods: The sample consisted of 1133 boys and 1154 girls aged 7–15. We used the following equations for BPHR: systolic BPHR (SBPHR) = SBP (mm Hg)/height (cm) and diastolic BPHR (DBPHR) = DBP (mm Hg)/height (cm). In order to determine the accuracy of SBPHR, DBPHR and BMI as diagnostic tests for elevated blood pressure (elevated BP), we used the receiveroperating characteristic curve analyses. Results: The area under the curve (AUC) values for BMI ranged from 0.625 to 0.723 with quite low sensitivity rates from 62% to 72.5% and specificities from 58.2% to 67.3% showing a modest ability to identify children with elevated BP and HTN. On the contrary, BPHR showed a great predictive ability to identify elevated BP and HTN with AUC values of 0.836 to 0.949 for SBP and from 0.777 to 0.904 for DBP. Furthermore, the sensitivity ranged from 78.5% to 95.7%, and the specificity from 73.9% to 87.6%. Conclusion: the current study showed that BPHR is an accurate index for detecting elevated BP and HTN in children aged 7 to 15 years and can be used for early screening.

Height-based equations as screening tools for elevated blood pressure in the SAYCARE study.

This study evaluated the accuracy of four height-based equations: blood pressure to height ratio (BPHR), modified BPHR (MBPHR), new modified BPHR (NMBPHR), and height-based equations (HBE) for screening elevated BP in children and adolescents in the SAYCARE study. We measured height and BP of 829 children and adolescents from seven South American cities. Receiving operating curves were used to assess formula performance to diagnose elevated BP in comparison to the 2017 clinical guideline. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values (PPV, NPV) were calculated for the four screening formulas. The diagnostic agreement was evaluated with the kappa coefficient. The HBE equation showed the maximum sensitivity (100%) in children, both for boys and girls, and showed the best performance results, with a very high NPV (>99%) and high PPV (>60%) except for female children (53.8%). In adolescents, the highest sensitivity (100%) was achieved with the NMBPHR for both sexes. Kappa coefficients indicated that HBE had the highest agreement with the gold standard diagnostic method (between 0.70 and 0.75), except for female children (0.57). Simplified methods are friendlier than the percentile gold standard tables. The HBE equation showed better performance than the other formulas in this Latin American pediatric population.

A3314 To determine the applicability of blood pressure to height ratio (BPHR) in early adolescence (9–13 years old) for detecting hypertension in early adolescents

Objectives: To validate the use of BPHR for diagnosing hypertension in early adolescence (9–13years). Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on (n = 600) school going adolescents,(boys, n = 300 and girls, n = 300) aged 9–13 years in Pune. Clinic Blood pressure readings, Height and weight was measured as per the NHANES guidelines. Data was stratified using Indian population based percentiles. Results: Systolic and diastolic BP in girls were 103.2 ± 8.3 and 62 ± 5.2 mmHg respectively and 106.5 ± 6.56 and 65 ± 4.1 mmHg respectively. Age and SBPHR among girls (r = − 0.106; P < 0.001) showed inverse correlation, and a weak correlation between age and DBPHR among boys (r = 0.071; P = 0.002) was found. Age and both systolic and diastolic blood pressure (age and SBP, r = 0.423 for boys and r = 0.271 for girls; age and DBP, r = 0.311 for boys and r = 0.293 for girls; all P < 0.001) showed a positive correlation. The correlations between age and both BPHR were significant in both boys and girls (r = 0.079 for age and SBPHR, r = 0.125 for age and DBPHR in girls; r = 0.062 for age and SBPHR, r = 0.132 for age and DBPHR in boys).Strong Correlation was found between BPHR and BP (r > 0.83 for all variables; P < 0.001).There were correlations between SBPHR and SBP percentiles (r = 0.782,P < 0.001) and DBPHR and DBP percentiles (r = 0.819,P < 0.001). All AUCs were >0.9 in both sexes among early adolescents except for those falling between the 90th and 95th percentiles. Conclusion: Blood pressure to height ratio is a sensitive and specific tool for detecting hypertension in adolescence. It was not effective in determining pre-hypertension.

Blood pressure-to-height ratio for diagnosing hypertension in adolescents

Background Diagnosing hypertension in children and adolescents is not always straightforward. The blood pressure-to-height ratio (BPHR) has been reported as a screening tool for diagnosing hypertension.Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of blood pressure-to-height ratio for evaluating hypertension in adolescents.Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among 432 healthy adolescents aged 12-17 years in Singkuang, North Sumatera from April to May 2016. Blood pressure tables from the National High Blood Pressure Education Program (NHBPEP) Working Group on High Blood Pressure in Children and Adolescents were used as our standard of comparison. Sex-specific systolic and diastolic blood pressure-to-height ratios (SBPHR and DBPHR) were calculated. ROC curve analyses were performed to assess the accuracy of BPHR for discriminating between hypertensive and non-hypertensive adolescents. Optimal thresholds of BPHR were determined and validated using 2x2 table analyses.Results The accuracies of BPHR for diagnosing hypertension were &gt; 90% (P&lt;0.001), for both males and females. Optimal SBPHR and DBPHR thresholds for defining hypertension were 0.787 and 0.507 in boys, respectively, and 0.836 and 0.541 in girls, respectively. The sensitivities of SBPHR and DBPHR in both sexes were all &gt;93%, and specificities in both sexes were all &gt;81%. Positive predictive values for SBPHR and DBPHR were 38.7% and 45.2% in boys, respectively; and 55.9% and 42.4% in girls, respectively; negative predictive values in both sexes were all &gt;97%, positive likelihood ratios in both sexes were all &gt;5, and negative likelihood ratios in both sexes were all &lt;1.Conclusion Blood pressure-to-height ratio is a simple screening tool with high sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing hypertension in adolescents.

Blood pressure-to-height ratio as a screening indicator of elevated blood pressure among children and adolescents in Chongqing, China.

We aimed to evaluate the performance of blood pressure-to-height ratio (BPHR) and establish their optimal thresholds for elevated blood pressure (BP) among children aged 6 to 17 years in Chongqing, China. Data were collected from 11 029 children and adolescents aged 6-17 years in 12 schools in Chongqing according to multistage stratified cluster sampling method. The gold standard for elevated BP was defined as systolic blood pressure (SBP) and/or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) ⩾95th percentile for gender, age and height. The diagnostic performance of systolic BPHR (SBPHR) and diastolic BPHR (DBPHR) to screen for elevated BP was evaluated through receiver-operating characteristic curves (including the area under the curve (AUC) and its 95% confidence interval, sensitivity and specificity). The prevalence of elevated BP in children and adolescents in Chongqing was 10.36% by SBP and/or DBP ⩾95th percentile for gender, age and height. The optimal thresholds of SBPHR/DBPHR for identifying elevated BP were 0.86/0.58 for boys and 0.85/0.57 for girls among children aged 6 to 8 years, 0.81/0.53 for boys and 0.80/0.52 for girls among children aged 9 to 11 years and 0.71/0.45 for boys and 0.72/0.47 for girls among adolescents aged 12-17 years, respectively. Across gender and the specified age groups, AUC ranged from 0.82 to 0.88, sensitivity were above 0.94 and the specificities were over 0.7. The positive predictive values ranged from 0.30 to 0.38 and the negative predictive values were ⩾0.99. BPHR, with uniform values across broad age groups (6-8, 9-11 and 12-17 years) for boys and for girls is a simple indicator to screen elevated BP in children and adolescents in Chongqing.

Suitability of blood-pressure-to-height ratio as the criterion for high blood pressure in children in an environmental study

Background: Blood-pressure-to-height ratio is considered a simple, accurate, inexpensive and non-age-dependent index for screening high blood pressure in a clinical setting, but its suitability in epidemiological surveys was not taken into consideration. The aim of this study was to test the suitability of blood-pressure-to-height ratio against blood pressure for age percentiles for the identification of high blood pressure in an environmental study.Methods: The sample consisted of 2195 children, aged 3 to 15 years, whose blood pressure was measured as part of an environmental study in Belgrade, Serbia. High blood pressure was estimated using percentiles (gold standard) and blood-pressure-to-height ratios for systolic and diastolic pressures separately (proposed criterion). The optimal cut-offs of the blood-pressure-to-height ratio (BPHR) were selected based on Youden’s index (sensitivity + specificity − 1) calculated from the receiver operator characteristic curve analysis.Results: The proposed criterion identified five times more cases of high blood pressure in the investigated children of all age groups in comparison to the gold standard. The optimal cut-off values were selected based on the sensitivity and specificity values by age groups and gender.Conclusion: Blood-pressure-to-height ratio can be a reliable criterion for the estimation of high blood pressure in epidemiological studies. This is the first study on the applicability of blood-pressure-to-height ratio in Serbian children, but it may not be easily generalized to other populations due to small sample size across the examined age groups and potential diversities in risk factors for high blood pressure. Applied in epidemiological studies, BPHR would help researchers estimate the role of certain environmental factors on blood pressure in children.

Performance of blood pressure-to-height ratio as a screening tool for elevated blood pressure in pediatric population: a systematic meta-analysis.

The aim of this study was to assess the performance of the blood pressure-to-height ratio (BPHR) for screening elevated blood pressure (BP) in children and adolescents using a meta-analysis of eligible published studies. We retrieved studies that investigated the performance of the BPHR for identifying elevated BP from Pubmed and other databases. We performed meta-analyses by subgroups of sex, age and ethnicity using a fixed or random effect model based on whether there was between-study heterogeneity. A total of 13 publications including 262 830 children and adolescents aged 6-18 years on BPHR and a total of three publications including 95 343 children on the modified BPHR were included in this meta-analysis. The summary results suggested that BPHR performed well to identify pre-high BP and high BP for children aged 6-11 years and adolescents aged 12-18 years. The performance of BPHR was perfect for identifying severe high BP in adolescents aged 12-18 years. However, the modified BPHR did not improve accuracy for screening high BP in children aged 6-12 years. In summary, BPHR performed well for identifying elevated BP in children and adolescents, independently of sex, age and ethnicity group. In addition, the modified BPHR performed similarly with BPHR for screening high BP in childhood.

Blood Pressure-to-Height Ratio as a Screening Tool for Hypertension in Children.

To test whether blood pressure-to-height ratio (BPHR) can be used to screen for hypertension in children. Data regarding blood pressure and other variables was recorded for 2702 school children between the ages of 10-16 years as a part of a nutritional survey. The optimal thresholds for defining hypertension in boys were 0.76 for systolic BPHR and 0.50 for diastolic BPHR; the respective threshold in girls were 0.80 and 0.52. BPHR can be used as an effective screening test for diagnosing both hypertension and prehypertension in children aged 10-16 years.

The performance of blood pressure-to-height ratio as a screening measure for identifying children and adolescents with hypertension: a meta-analysis.

The blood pressure-to-height ratio (BPHR) has been shown to be an accurate index for screening hypertension in children and adolescents. The aim of the present study was to perform a meta-analysis to assess the performance of BPHR for the assessment of hypertension. 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. 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. The BPHR had higher diagnostic accuracies for identifying hypertension in children and adolescents.

Improving Hypertension Screening in Childhood Using Modified Blood Pressure to Height Ratio.

Blood pressure to height ratio (BPHR) has been suggested as a simple method for screening children with hypertension, but its discriminatory ability in young children is not as good as that in older children. Using data of 89,664 Chinese children aged 7 to 11 years, the authors assessed whether modified BPHR (BP:eHT13) was better than BPHR in identifying young children with hypertension. BP:eHT13 was estimated as BP/(height+7×(13-age in years)). Using Youden's index, the thresholds of systolic/diastolic BP:eHT13 for identifying prehypertension and hypertension were 0.67/0.44 and 0.69/0.45, respectively. These proposed thresholds revealed high sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, and area under the curve (AUC), ranging from 0.874 to 0.999. In addition, BP:eHT13 showed better AUCs and fewer cutoff points than, if not similar to, two existing BPHR references. BP:eHT13 generally performed better than BPHR in discriminating BP abnormalities in young children and may improve early hypertension recognition and control.

Blood pressure-to-height ratio for screening prehypertension and hypertension in Chinese children.

The diagnosis of hypertension in children is complicated because of the multiple age-, sex- and height-specific thresholds. To simplify the process of diagnosis, blood pressure-to-height ratio (BPHR) was employed in this study. Data were obtained from a Chinese national survey conducted in 2010, and 197 191 children aged 7-17 years were included. High normal and elevated blood pressure (BP) were defined according to the National High Blood Pressure Education Program (NHBPEP) Working Group definition. The optimal thresholds were selected by Youden's index. Sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV), positive predictive value (PPV) and area under the curve (AUC) were assessed for the performance of these thresholds. The systolic and diastolic BPHR thresholds for identifying high normal BP were 0.84/0.55, 0.78/0.50 and 0.75/0.46 for children aged 7-8 years, 9-11 years and 12-17 years, respectively. The corresponding thresholds for identifying elevated BP were 0.87/0.57, 0.81/0.53 and 0.76/0.49, respectively. These proposed thresholds revealed high sensitivity and NPVs, all above 0.96, moderate to high specificity and AUCs, and low PPVs. Our finding suggested the proposed BPHR thresholds were accurate for identifying children without high normal or elevated BP, and could be employed to simplify the procedure of screening prehypertension and hypertension in children.

Performance of blood pressure-to-height ratio at a single screening visit for the identification of hypertension in children

The diagnosis of hypertension in children is difficult because of the multiple sex-, age-, and height-specific thresholds to define elevated blood pressure (BP). Blood pressure-to-height ratio (BPHR) has been proposed to facilitate the identification of elevated BP in children. We assessed the performance of BPHR at a single screening visit to identify children with hypertension that is sustained elevated BP. In a school-based study conducted in Switzerland, BP was measured at up to three visits in 5207 children. Children had hypertension if BP was elevated at the three visits. Sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV), and positive predictive value (PPV) for the identification of hypertension were assessed for different thresholds of BPHR. The ability of BPHR at a single screening visit to discriminate children with and without hypertension was evaluated with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses. The prevalence of systolic/diastolic hypertension was 2.2%. Systolic BPHR had a better performance to identify hypertension compared with diastolic BPHR (area under the ROC curve: 0.95 vs. 0.84). The highest performance was obtained with a systolic BPHR threshold set at 0.80 mmHg/cm (sensitivity: 98%; specificity: 85%; PPV: 12%; and NPV: 100%) and a diastolic BPHR threshold set at 0.45 mmHg/cm (sensitivity: 79%; specificity: 70%; PPV: 5%; and NPV: 99%). The PPV was higher among tall or overweight children. BPHR at a single screening visit had a high performance to identify hypertension in children, although the low prevalence of hypertension led to a low PPV.

Blood pressure-to-height ratio as a screening measure for identifying children with hypertension

The present study evaluated the feasibility and accuracy of the blood pressure-to-height ratio (BPHR) and proposed the optimal thresholds of BPHR for identifying hypertension in Han children aged 7-12 years. In 2011, anthropometric measurements were assessed in a cross-sectional population-based study of 1,352 Han children aged 7-12 years. Hypertension was defined according to the 2004 National High Blood Pressure Education Program Working Group definition (as gold standard). The following equations for BPHR were used: systolic blood pressure-to-height ratio (SBPHR) = SBP (mmHg)/height (cm) and diastolic blood pressure-to-height ratio (DBPHR) = DBP (mmHg)/height (cm). Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were performed to assess the accuracy of SBPHR and DBPHR as diagnostic tests for elevated SBP and DBP, respectively. After the cutoff points were determined, hypertension was defined by SBPHR/DBPHR (new standard), and the sensitivity and specificity were calculated. The accuracy of SBPHR and DBPHR (assessed by area under the curve) for identifying elevated SBP and DBP was over 0.85 (0.946-1.000). SBPHR cutoff values for elevated SBP were calculated to be 0.76-0.88 mmHg/cm in boys and 0.78-0.90 mmHg/cm in girls. DBPHR cutoff values for elevated DBP were calculated to be 0.51-0.60 mmHg/cm in boys and 0.51-0.58 mmHg/cm in girls. When hypertension was defined by BPHR, the sensitivities were 100 % in boys and 95.0 % in girls. The specificity was 94.3 % in boys and 96.8 % in girls. BPHR is a simple, inexpensive, and accurate index for screening hypertension in Han children.

Blood pressure to height ratios as simple, sensitive and specific diagnostic tools for adolescent (pre)hypertension in Nigeria

BackgroundThe age-, gender-, and height-percentile requirements of the 'gold-standard' for the diagnosis of (pre)hypertension in adolescents make it time-consuming for clinicians and difficult-to-use by non-professionals. Simplified diagnostic tools are therefore needed. The use of blood pressure-to-height ratio (BPHR) - systolic BPHR (SBPHR) and diastolic BPHR (DBPHR) - has been reported in Han adolescents, but it requires validation in other racial groups. The diagnostic accuracy of SBPHR and DBPHR in a population of 1,173 Nigerian adolescents aged 11-17 years, was therefore studied.MethodsBlood pressures were measured using standard procedures and (pre)hypertension were defined according to international recommendations. ROC curve analyses were used to assess the diagnostic accuracy of BPHR in defining (pre)hypertension in this population. Sex-specific threshold values for SBPHR and DBPHR were determined, and thereafter used to define (pre)hypertension. The sensitivity/specificity of this method was determined.ResultsThe accuracies of SBPHR and DBPHR in diagnosing (pre)hypertension, in both sexes, was >92%. The optimal thresholds for diagnosing prehypertension were 0.72/0.46 in boys and 0.73/0.48 in girls; while for hypertension, they were 0.75/0.51 in boys and 0.77/0.50 in girls. The sensitivity and specificity of this method were >96%.ConclusionsThe use of BPHR is valid, simple and accurate in this population. Race-specific thresholds are however needed.

How to simplify the diagnostic criteria of hypertension in adolescents

Diagnosis of hypertension in adolescents is complicated because blood pressure values vary with age, gender and height. How can we simplify the diagnostic criteria for hypertension in adolescents? In 2006, anthropometric measurements were assessed in a cross-sectional population-based study of 3136 Han adolescents aged 13-17 years. Hypertension was defined according to the 2004 National High Blood Pressure Education Program Working Group definition. The following equations for blood pressure-to-height ratio (BPHR) were used: systolic BPHR (SBPHR)=SBP (mm Hg)/height (cm) and diastolic BPHR (DBPHR)=DBP (mm Hg)/height (cm). Receiver-operating characteristic curve analyses were performed to assess the accuracy of SBPHR and DBPHR as diagnostic tests for elevated systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), respectively. After the cutoff points were determined, hypertension was defined by SBPHR/DBPHR, and the sensitivity and specificity were calculated. The accuracy of SBPHR and DBPHR (assessed by area under the curve) for identifying elevated SBP and DBP was >0.85 (0.989-1.000). The optimal thresholds of SBPHR/DBPHR for defining hypertension (stages 1 and 2) were 0.75/0.48 for boys and 0.78/0.51 for girls, and for defining hypertension (stage 2) were 0.81/0.57 for boys and 0.84/0.63 for girls. In identifying hypertension, the sensitivity and specificity were both >90% (91.0-99.1%). In identifying stage 2 hypertension, when the sensitivity was 100%, the specificity was 98.6% for boys and 99.1% for girls. BPHR is a simple, accurate and non-age-dependent index for screening hypertension in Han adolescents, especially for stage 2 hypertension.