[USMA:32241] RE: pseudometric units

[Scott Hudnall]

Title: Re: [USMA:32234] RE: pseudometric units

I believe that one of the reasons that mmHg is commonly in use to measure blood pressure is that there are still a lot of old mercury-containing wall-mounted sphygmomanometers in use around the world. I doubt they will completely be replaced by newer electronic equipment, because hospital emergency rooms need to be able to function without electricity or battery power for extended periods if necessary. After a power outage or power surge, the newer electronic models may need to be re-calibrated. The mercury-based equipment, however does not need to be calibrated by a specialist – the number can be read directly off of the tube.

A good argument for not converting to Pa or hPa is that it introduces a chance for error during the exam. In an emergency situation where seconds can make the difference between life and death, there really isn’t time to have everybody sitting around doing conversions. This is why the medical profession uses metric in the first place.

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From: Bill Potts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 00:12:17 -0800
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>
Subject: [USMA:32234] RE: pseudometric units

Although the torr is used, I never see the name. It's always shown on blood
pressure measuring equipment (sphygmomanometers) as mmHg.

Bill Potts, CMS
Roseville, CA
http://metric1.org [SI Navigator]


>-----Original Message-----
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Behalf Of Pierre Abbat
>Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2005 05:17
>To: U.S. Metric Association
>Subject: [USMA:32232] pseudometric units
>
>
>A couple of pseudometric units in common use are the calorie (used for
>measuring food energy) and the torr (used for measuring blood pressure). I
>know some countries put kilojoules on nutrition labels, but is there any
>movement to unseat the torr?
>
>phma
>--
>A man found gold and left a rope; but he who found
>No gold he left did tie the rope around.
>