'N studie van indirekte bloeddrukbepaling by blanke kinders van vier jaar af tot sestien jaar.

Abstract

Th e re s ult s of t hi s report were obta in ed from st udie s made of 1047 schoo l c hildr en between t he ages of 6 and 17 yea r s. The report consists of studies made of variable s such as blood pre ss ure, heart frequencies, body temperature, environmen ta l tem- perat ure and anthropometri ca 1 data on body mass. body 1eng th, l ength of the upper arm, sk in t hi ck ness of the hic eps and perce n- tage of body fat. During hlood pr ess ur e readings the first and the fifth Korotkow- sounds were u se d as cr i teria. Different c uff sizes were u se d during b lood pre ss ur e reading s , viz . 7, 9, 12 and 18 c m. Th e sta ndard deviation s and averages were de te n1in ed for each v ariab le, while t he corre lation co-e fficient was only det ermined as between blood pre ss ure and body length, body mass, arm c ir c um- ference, heart fr eq uency , body temperature, environmen ta l temp e ra- t ure , length of the upp er arm, s kin thickness of the biceps and the per centage of body fat. The result s were se l ected with t he aid of a computer pr ogramme. From the results it appea r s that t here is a stat isti c ally s i gnifi- ca nt co rr el atio n between th e utf si ze wni ch sho uld be u se d and the age gro up. From t he se l ected resu l ts it fur t herm ore appears that t he systo lic blood pressure of both sexes especia lly corre l ates sig nifi c ant wi t h body mass . The average systo l ic blooed pressure of boys varied fr om 10 8 mm Hg 84 for the si x-yec1r ol ds to 120 111111 Hg vir tile lfi-year olds. The average systo lic blood pressure of g il"l s variPd from 1()8 nnn Hq for the six year ol ds to l!Q 111111 Hg for the Hi-year o l d s. The dia st olic blood pres sure did not revea l s t;it· i s ti cal l y s io - nif ·icant inc rea-;e with age . Th e 11verage dia s tolic bl ood pres- s ur e varied between 58 111111 Hg in the case or 11 -_y ,ir ol d boys and 71 mm Hg in the ca se o f 17-year old gir l s . The average blood pr ess ure of o·ld er gir l s betw eP n te n and Fif teen years was on average 5 1m1 Hg higher than that o r boys. Thi s slight l y increased hlood pressure in the case of the girls ca n be ascribed to seco ndary developmental r.b11r;;1cterist i c;, great- er body mass and fewer physical activit i es. The normal blood pressure obta in ed for thi s report has b ee n com- pared wit h other published results by we ll - known researchers. An average systo li c bl ood pres sure difference of 4 mn Hg was obs rved in the case of 12-year olds and a d if ference of an aven1g e o f 10 mm Hg higher was noticeable in the case of children older than 12. In the case of diastolic blood pre ssure only a differe nce of an average of 5 n1n Hg higher appeared in the age g1·oups 12 years and younger. The ant.hropometricalresult s a nd other variabl es measu red are in accordan ce with traditional findings in ex i st in g li terature on these topics. R5 The parthogenes i s of essential hyperten sio n among chi ld ren will only be properly understood when standardized blood pressure s urvey s and definitiv e variables for nonnal blood pressure values are detennined. These st andardized data mu st be laid do~m by a world health organi- zation in order that future surveys of researches can be exact, a cc urat e , repe11table and use ful throughout the world.