Age‐based centiles for diastolic blood pressure among children in the out‐of‐hospital emergency setting

Abstract Objective To compare Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) diastolic blood pressure (DBP) criteria to empirically derived DBP criteria for the prediction of out‐of‐hospital interventions in children. Methods We performed a retrospective study of pediatric (90th centile). The accuracy of low DBP for out‐of‐hospital interventions between the two criteria was similar. Conclusion PALS criteria for DBP classified a high proportion of children as having abnormal vital signs, particularly with diastolic hypertension. Empirically derived DBP thresholds more accurately predict the delivery of key out‐of‐hospital interventions. If externally validated, correlated to in‐hospital outcomes, and combined with thresholds for other vital signs, these may better predict the need for out‐of‐hospital interventions.