About the need to use specific population references in estimating paediatric hypertension: Sardinian blood pressure standards (age 11-14 years)

BPs were repeatedly measured over a period of 3 years in 839 children (52.6% males. Age range: from 11 to 14 years during this period), using a standard mercury sphygmomanometer. For each gender, the specific percentile curves of systolic and diastolic BP were constructed.mean systolic BP (50th centile): from 111 to 115 mmHg. Hypertensive systolic BP (> 95th percentile): from 127 to 135 mmHg. Mean diastolic BP (50th centile): from 65 to 69 mmHg. Hypertensive diastolic BP (> 95th percentile): from 78 to 82 mmHg.mean systolic BP (50th centile): from 110 to 112 mmHg. Hypertensive systolic BP (> 95th percentile): from 127 to 130 mmHg. Mean diastolic BP (50th centile): from 65 to 67. Hypertensive diastolic BP (> 95th percentile): from 78 to 80 mmHg.Sardinian BP tables emphasizes the need to integrate the previous standards with more up-to-date and representative reports on Italian children, as periodically performed in the USA, in order to increase the number of subjects to be checked, and to obtain a national coverage better and more completely representative of every geographic area of our country.At this time, about 30% of all the world adult population is suffering from hypertension (HTN), an important risk factor in the subsequent developing of a number of cardiovascular (CV) diseases, such as stroke or heart attack. Furthermore, this percentage is probably underestimated, because most people do not check their blood pressure (BP) levels regularly and carefully [1].HTN can be identified since infancy or adolescence, as a fleeting excess in BP values or an anomalous BP rising when anxious or during physical exercise. As for other chronic diseases, HTN can be detected many decades before its signs and symptoms clinically manifested themselves. In addition, since BP tends to track along the same percentiles throughout life, children with higher BPs are more likely to become hypertensive adults [2-4].It is noteworthy that normal BP values in paediatric age are really di