Pediatric impedance cardiography: Temporal stability and intertask consistency

The pathogenic processes responsible for cardiovascular disease have their origins in childhood. Although children's measures of heart rate and blood pressure have been found to be reliable, the reliability of impedance cardi ography derived measures have not been evaluated. Thirty-three children, ag es 8-11 participated in two sessions. Stressors included serial subtraction , isometric handgrip, and mirror-image tracing. Results indicated the imped ance measures showed moderately high temporal stability (average scores r(a vg) = 74; difference scores r(avg) = .53) and intertask consistency (averag e scores r(avg) = .78; difference scores r(avg) = .53). Blood pressure demo nstrated the lowest reliability; Heather index, preejection period, and str oke volume demonstrated the highest. These findings suggest children's card iovascular reactivity to laboratory stressors can be reliably and consisten tly assessed using impedance cardiography.