Twenty-four-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in newborn

Over the past several years, 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) has become a useful tool for the diagnosis and management of children and adolescents with elevated blood pressure (BP). In our study we investigated the applicability of ABPM in 25 healthy newborn, aged from 1 to 6 days. A satisfactory ABPM profile was obtained in 100 % of the children, with an average of 95 % satisfactory BP recordings. The mean ± SD systolic and diastolic BP of healthy newborn was 75 ± 12/46 ± 13 mmHg during the daytime and 73 ± 12/44 ± 13 mmHg during the night, with no gender difference observed. The 24-h mean ± SD systolic and diastolic BP, which may be a more appropriate measure of BP in this particular age group, was found to be 71 ± 15/41 ± 14 mmHg. There was only a slight nocturnal decrease in BP. We conclude that this method is applicable for the assessment of blood pressure in the newborn.

ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, blood pressure, hypertension, newborn