Establishment of blood pressure nomograms representative for Egyptian children and adolescents: a cross-sectional study

ObjectiveTo define nomograms for blood pressure in Egyptian children and adolescents.Methods and study designA total of 60 025 Egyptian children from birth to 19 years were enrolled in this cross-sectional randomised study from December 2015 to March 2017. They were selected from diverse geographical districts in Egypt. Healthy children who fulfilled the inclusion criteria, which included good nutritional history, absence of fever or documented underlying disease at the time of examination, no evidence of haemodynamically significant illness, and no antihypertensive drugs or other chronic drug administration, were included in the study. Body weight, recumbent length (for less than 24 months) and height (from 2 years to 19 years), and blood pressure were measured using standard mercury sphygmomanometers.ResultsBlood pressure increases with age in both boys and girls. The 90th percentile of systolic and diastolic blood pressure among Egyptian children was different from other ethnic populations (American and Turkish children) in both sexes. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure showed a positive correlation with weight and height in both sexes (p