{
  "id": 16767917,
  "title": "Blood Pressure Targets in Critically Ill Children",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/27/blood-pressure-targets-in-critically-ill-children",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-10-27T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "JAMA",
    "slug": "jama",
    "url": "https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2854756"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The question of whether to treat low blood pressure in critically ill children is a common concern for acute care pediatricians. Blood pressure tends to rise with physical growth, influenced by changes in stroke volume, vascular structure, function, and neurohumoral regulation. This leads to a broad range of normal blood pressure values across different stages of childhood. The ambiguity surrounding acceptable blood pressure limits, especially in hospitalized children, stems from the variability in age-based reference values. Determining the threshold for an unusually low blood pressure can be challenging and may differ from the pressure needed for adequate organ perfusion. This uncertainty can create tension for clinicians when deciding whether to manage potentially low blood pressure in a child. The decision to treat low blood pressure can involve various interventions, ranging from temporary stimulation to the administration of vasopressor and inotropic medications via a central vascular catheter. Clinicians' decisions are influenced by the fear that failing to treat low blood pressure could lead to potentially difficult-to-measure harm.",
  "summary": "“Do I need to treat this blood pressure?” is one of the most common questions to pass through the minds of acute care pediatricians during a typical day in the hospital. Blood pressure generally increases with somatic growth, reflecting developmental changes in stroke volume, vascular structure and function, and neurohumoral regulation. As a result of interindividual variation across the…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}