{
  "abstract": "Background In children, the value of routine blood pressure measurement in first assessment at the emergency department has been questioned. This has, however, not yet been evaluated in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where the incidence of serious illness is high. This study assessed the predictive value of low systolic blood pressure to detect serious illness in children attending acute care settings in LMICs.Methods This observational study is based on data from children attending three acute care settings in The Gambia and Suriname. Hypotension was defined by age-adjusted reference values according to Advanced Paediatric Life Support (APLS) and Paediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) cut-offs. The outcome measure was a composite marker of serious illness consisting of admission or referral to a higher level of care. A logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between hypotension and serious illness for each setting separately.Results 20 185 visits from Gambia rural, 398 visits from Gambia urban and 1817 visits from Suriname were included. Hypotension was present in 8.3–17.3% of visits and serious illness in 3.9–15.7%. Hypotension was not significantly associated with serious illness in Gambia urban (OR APLS 3.2 (0.7–10.9) and ORPALS 1.4 (0.1–7.6)) and Suriname (ORAPLS 1.3 (0.9–1.9) and ORPALS 1.7 (0.9–3.2)), and with an inverse association in Gambia rural (ORAPLS 0.6 (0.5–0.7) and ORPALS 0.9 (0.5–1.4)).Conclusions Our results do not show a significant association between hypotension and serious illness in LMICs. Our results suggest that routine blood pressure measurement does not aid in the evaluation of well-appearing children attending acute care settings in LMICs.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of General Paediatrics, Erasmus MC Sophia, Rotterdam, Netherlands"
      ],
      "name": "Naomi Kemps"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of General Paediatrics, Erasmus MC Sophia, Rotterdam, Netherlands"
      ],
      "name": "Nienke N Hagedoorn"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Paediatrics, Maasstad Hospital, Rotterdam, Netherlands",
        "Department of Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Erasmus MC Sophia, Rotterdam, Netherlands"
      ],
      "name": "Navin P Boeddha"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Medical Research Council Unit, Applications Development & e-Health Department, The Gambia at The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Banjul, Gambia"
      ],
      "name": "Abdoulie Faal"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Pediatrics, Academic Hospital Paramaribo, Paramaribo, Suriname"
      ],
      "name": "Natanael Holband"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Pediatrics, Academic Hospital Paramaribo, Paramaribo, Suriname"
      ],
      "name": "Amadu E Juliana"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Children’s National Hospital, Washington, DC, USA",
        "LiGHT Laboratory, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland"
      ],
      "name": "Kristina Keitel"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Pediatrics, Academic Hospital Paramaribo, Paramaribo, Suriname"
      ],
      "name": "Kevin H Van’t Kruys"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Paediatrics, Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, Bristol, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Elizabeth V Ledger"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Mbeya Medical Research Center, National Institute for Medical Research, Mbeya, Mbeya Region, Tanzania, United Republic of"
      ],
      "name": "Chacha D Mangu"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of General Paediatrics, Erasmus MC Sophia, Rotterdam, Netherlands"
      ],
      "name": "Henriette A Moll"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Nutrition and Planetary Health Theme, Medical Research Council Unit, The Gambia at The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Banjul, Gambia"
      ],
      "name": "Andrew M Prentice"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland",
        "Center for Primary Care and Public Health (Unisanté), University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland"
      ],
      "name": "Rainer Tan"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Medical Research Council Unit, The Gambia at The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Banjul, Gambia"
      ],
      "name": "Effua Usuf"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Child Life and Health, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Stefan A Unger"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Erasmus MC Sophia, Rotterdam, Netherlands"
      ],
      "name": "Clementien L Vermont"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Erasmus MC Sophia, Rotterdam, Netherlands"
      ],
      "name": "Joany M Zachariasse"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [],
      "name": "on behalf of VITaLs Study Group"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Value of blood pressure for detecting serious illness in children attending acute care settings in low- and middle-income countries: a multicentre observational study",
  "uid": "20e2434c-bee2-5318-a60b-0202b8e09327"
}