Paul Trusten wrote: >I would certainly favor one standard >of measurement "for all people, for all times." > >Hey, here is my opportunity to ask this: >does anyplace on earth measure blood pressure >routinely in kilopascals?
I found kpa being used in in Austrian web pages. The topic is certainly being discussed. ***************************************** http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7343738&dopt=Citation [What happens when mmHg are replaced by kPa? (author's transl)] Stepanik J. Resolution no. 30.39 of the WHA, passed in May 1977, recommends the adoption of SI units by the medical community throughout the world, including a change from mmHg to kPa. In Austria this requirement has been law since January 1978. This paper describes how simply the transition can be made and how other results, such as those of tonography and differential tonometry, are numerically altered as a result. Finally a simple modification is described which enables the Goldmann tonometer to indicate intraocular pressure, its kPa being equal to g on the scale. ***************************************** http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2F66.102.9.104%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dcache%3AucHHv6xH-DoJ%3Awww.infoline.at%2Fhypertonie%2Fselbstmessung.htm%2Bmmhg%2Bkpa%2BBlutdruck%26hl%3Den&langpair=de%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8 Since for toxicological and environmental careful reasons mercury is to disappear gradually from medical instruments, the question rises, how long " mmHg " can maintain ground still in relation to the kPa ***************************************** http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2004/WHO_IMD_PUB_04.1.pdf WHO style guide In 1977, in resolution WHA30.39, the World Health Assembly recommended the adoption of the SI by the entire scientific community, and particularly the medical community throughout the world. Therefore, SI units should always be used in WHO publications. Exceptionally, for blood pressure, values may still be given in millimetres of mercury with the equivalent in kilopascals in parentheses: 120 mmHg (16 kPa). ***************************************** http://www.abdn.ac.uk/medical/bhs/booklet/equipmen.htm Banning mercury from hospital wards raises another issue of even greater importance for clinical medicine than that of rendering the mercury sphygmomanometer obsolete. If the millimetre of mercury is no longer the unit of measurement for blood pressure, there can be little scientific argument against its replacement with the Système International (SI) unit, the kilopascal. The British Hypertension Society has instructed its Working Party on Blood Pressure Measurement to consider the implications of these issues for clinical practice and draw up recommendations for the smooth implementation of the necessary changes. Towards this end kilopascal equivalents to millimetres of mercury are shown in the table. ***************************************** http://heart.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/85/1/3 Banning mercury from clinical use raises another issue of importance for clinical medicine. The Systeme International (SI) unit for pressure is the kilopascal. However, replacing the millimetre of mercury by the kilopascal has been postponed until such time as there is a suitable alternative to the mercury sphygmomanometer.6 If the millimetre of mercury is no longer the unit of measurement for blood pressure, the mainstay of the medical argument for retaining it as a unit of measurement---namely, that we measure what we see---will also disappear. ***************************************** http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/prof/heart/hbp/bpmeasu.pdf National High Blood Pressure Education Program (NHBPEP)/ National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and American Heart Association (AHA) Working Meeting on Blood Pressure Measurement April 19, 2002 If we donât have mercury, should we revisit kPa? ***************************************** http://www.meduni-graz.at/UBT/blut_bzw_blutkomponentenersatz1.htm Sie beträgt (Normalwert) im arteriellen Blut: pO2 = 13,33 kPa (100 Torr) Terry __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
