BACKGROUND: Blood pressure measurement are used by medical purposes. Most clinical staffs assume that its values are accurate and reliable irrespective of the measured position. In order to measure blood pressure exactly the cuffed upper arm and the heart should be kept at the same level. However, sometimes the blood pressure must be taken with the patient lying on his/her side. In this lateral position it is difficult to set the cuff at the heart's level. PURPOSE: This study aims at applying exact measurements of blood pressure to practical use. Blood pressure measurements taken from the four extremities (right arm, left arm, right leg and left leg) in the lateral position are compared to those taken in the right arm in the supine position.
METHODS
Thirty-one female and Thirty-two male subjects were sampled among fit students and the data were collected from May 7th, 2001 through June 7th, 2001. To begin with, the blood pressure of right arm in the supine position was measured. Then the blood pressure was measured again after 3 minutes in the subject's right lateral position.
RESULTS
The blood pressure in the left arm in the right lateral position was lower than the right arm's blood pressure in the supine position (systolic difference=15.57 mmHg, diastolic difference=10.86 mmHg).
DISCUSSION
Hydrostatic effects are the most likely cause of the drop in blood pressure of left arm in right lateral position. When blood pressure is measured in the left arm in the right lateral position, the position and site should be noted as well as the pressure may be 10mmHg or more lower than the precise blood pressure.

PURPOSE: In order to improve self-management of elderly hypertensives in this study, the researcher examined the effect of blood pressure regulation by an abdominal relaxed breathing training which regulates physical response to stress and lessens the activity of the sympathetic nerve.
METHOD
A quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test design was used. Thirty elderly hypertensive patient ; Sixteen in the abdominal breathing group and fourteen in the control group participated in this study. The abdominal relaxed breathing training consisted of eight sessions twice a week for four weeks. There was no intervention for the control group.
RESULT
1. There was a significant decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure between the experimental group and control group over three different times, and interaction by groups and over time. 2. There was no significant difference in the level of total stress response, physical stress response, behavioral-cognitive stress response between the experimental group and control group over three different times, and interaction by groups and over time.
CONCLUSION
Findings indicate that this study will contribute to develop nursing strategies for the regulation of blood pressure for the elderly, which is easy for the elderly to learn as a nonpharmacologic approach.

PURPOSE: To determine the frequency of past and present obesity among patients with NIDDM and to identify the differences of body fat, blood pressure and C-peptide/glucose ratio according to obese diabetic patients (BMI> or =25 kg/m2) and nonobese (BMI<25 kg/m2). Also the final factor is to observe the anthrometric change patterns in the study. METHOD: The weight at 20 years-old, previous maximal body weight, and acute weight loss were queried. Current height, body weight, BMI, waist & hip circumferences, waist-hip ratio, skinfold thicknesses, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, and fasting C-peptide were measured in one hundred sixty-seven NIDDM patients. The differences of the parameters ccording to obese and nonobese, and three anthropometric change patterns were analyzed. RESULT: Results were as follows: 1. 66.5 % of the NIDDM patients had a history of past obesity as assessed by their maximum weight, while only 33.2% of them were currently obese (p's < 0.001). 2. The waist & hip circumferences, skinfold thicknesses, systolic, diastolic & mean arterial blood pressure in obese patients were greater than those of nonobese patients (all p's < 0.001). 3. The waist and the hip circumferences, and skinfold thicknesses (subscapula & triceps) were highest among the obese-obese group. WHR and abdominal skinfold thickness in the obese-obese and obese-nonobese groups were higher than those in the nonobese-nonobese group. Systolic & diastolic and mean arterial blood pressures in the obese-obese group were higher than those of obese-nonobese and nonobese-nonobese groups (all p's < 0.005).4. The abdominal and subscapular skinfold thicknesses in female diabetic patients were greater than those of male patients (all p's <0.0001). CONCLUSION: Although most Korean NIDDM patients were previously obese, many of them were not obese during the course of the study. Greater central and upper body adiposicity and higher blood pressure was shown in obese diabetic patients. Also, greater central and upper body adiposicity was demonstrated in female diabetic patients.

This study was done to compare the difference of obesity index(waist-hip ratio, body fat, body mass index, relative body weight), blood pressure and serum lipids in abdominal obesity and non abdominal in both men and women. Abdominal and non abdominal obesity was divided into waist-hip ratio above 0.85 in women and 0.95 in men. The subjects were 412 adults (age range 40-59), who had regular health examinations between 1996 to 1997 at the S-Hospital in Seoul. The data were analyzed using ANCOVA (for adjusted for age) and Pearson correlation coefficient. The results were as follows: 1. 39.9% of men and 42.5% of women had abdominal obesity. The average age group of abdominal obesity was 50.8 which is older than the non abdominal obesity group(48.0). 2. After they were adjusted for age, the group of men who have abdominal obesity had higher levels in body fat, body mass index, relative body weight, blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL- cholesterol and triglyceride than the group of non abdominal obesity group. The group of women with abdominal obesity had higer levels in body fat, body mass index, relative body weight , blood pressure and triglyceride than the group of non abdominal obesity. 3. In the group of non abdominal obesity, the waist-hip ratio was significantly correlated to body fat, body mass index, relative body weight, blood pressure and serum lipids the group of abdominal obesity in men and women.

This study was performed to investigate the relationship between reversed circadian blood pressure and risk factors of peripheral vascular disease in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) subjects. The subjects in this study were 18 NIDDM patients who were hospitalized in a medical unit of an university medical center located in Incheon, Korea, between November, 1998 and March, 1999. Blood pressure was measured with a mercury sphygmomanometer by 2 trained examiners every 2 hours during 24 hours. NIDDM subjects were divided into a dipper group and non-dipper group. Dippers are defined as those who show a mean nighttime blood pressure(BP) drop of more than 10% compared with daytime BP. Non-dippers are defined as those who show a mean nighttime BP drop of less than 10%, or an elevation in BP compared with daytime BP. Daytime BP included values obtained between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Night time BP included values obtained between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Data was analyzed by SPSS/PC package. Chi-square( 2) test was used for the comparison of sex between The dipper group and non-dipper group. Mann-Whitney test was used for comparisons of values of the risk factors of peripheral vascular disease and the frequency of complications of diabetes between the dipper group and non-dipper group. The results are as follows. There were no significant differences in daytime systolic, diastolic, and mean blood pressures between the dipper group and non-dipper group. However, night time systolic, diastolic, and mean blood pressures in the non-dipper group were significantly nigher than those in the dipper group (p=.021). There were no differences in sex, age, body, weight, duration of diabetes, serum lipid levels, BUN and HbA1c between the two groups. On the contrary, 87.5% of non-dipper group subjects showed having hypertension, 30% of dipper group subjects showed having hypertension and this difference was statistically significant (p=.018). All of the non-dipper group subjects (N=8) showed having at least one diabetic complication. However, 40% of the dipper group subjects (N=10) showed having no diabetic complication at all and this difference was also statistically significant (p=.049). There were no significant differences in frequency of nephropathy, neuropathy and retinopathy between the dipper group and non-dipper group.

A meta-analysis of 14 quasi-experimental studies was conducted to compare the effect of size on various relaxation therapies applied to patients and health volunteer students. These studies were selected from theses, dissertations and papers that have been done between 1982 to 1993. Also They have a randomized or nonequivalent control group in a pre test-post test design. The studies were evaluated in different ways; 1) types of relaxation therapy, 2) total amount of time of relaxation therapy, and 3) types of outcome variables. For a group of homogenious studies, the weighted mean effect size and standard error were estimated. Some findings are summarized as follows : 1. Jacobson relaxation therapy had a larger effect on systolic and diastolic blood pressures than on state anxiety. 2. For the total time of relaxation therapy, (longer than 60 minutes) had a much larger effect in decreasing systolic and diastolic blood pressures than in the case of a time period shorter than 60 minutes. 3. Relaxation therapy applied to surgery patients also had a larger effect in decreasing state anxiety than when applied to other patients.

The purpose of this study was evaluate the usefulness of variables which were known to be related to blood pressure for discriminating between hypertensive and normotensive groups. Variables able such as smoking, alcohol, exercise, and stress, and demographic variables such as age, economical status, and education. The data were collected from 400 male clients who visited one university hospital located in Incheon, Republic of Korea, from May 1996 to December 1996 for a regular physical examination. Variables which showed significance for discriminating systolic blood pressure in this study were age, serum lipids, education, HDL, exercise, total smoking(in order of significance). By using the combination of these variables, the possibility of proper prediction for a high-systolic pressure group was 2%, predicting a normal-systolic pressure group was 70.3%, and total Hit Ratio was 70%. Variables which showed significance for discriminating diastolic blood pressure were exercise, triglyceride, alcohol, smoking, economical status, age and BMI(in order of significance). By using the combination of these variables, the possibility of proper prediction for a high-diastolic pressure group was 71.2%, predicting a normal-diastolic pressure group was 71.3%, and total Hit Ratio was 71.3%. Multiple regression analysis was performed to examine the association of systolic blood pressure with life style-related variables after adjustment for obesity, serum lipids, and demographic variables. First, the effect of demographic variable alone on the systolic blood pressure was statistically significant(p=.000) and adjusted R2 was 0.09. Adding the variable obesity on demographic variables resulted in raising adjusted R2 to 0.11(p=.000) ; therefore, the contribution rate of obesity on the systolic blood pressure was 2.0%. On the next step, adding the variable serum lipids on the obesity and demographic variables resulted in raising adjusted R2 to 0.12(p=.000) : therefore, the contribution rate of serum lipid on the systolic pressure was 1.0%. Finally, adding life style-related variables on all other variables resulted in raising the adjusted R2 to 0.18(p=.000) ; therefore, the contribution rate of life style-related variables on the systolic blood pressure after adjustment for obesity, serum lipids, and demographic variables was 6.0%. Multiple regression analysis was also performed to examine the association of diastolic blood pressure with life style-related variables after adjustment for obesity, serum lipids, and demographic variables. First, the effect of demographic variable alone on the diastolic blood pressure was statistically significant(p=.01) and adjusted R2 was 0.03. Adding the variable obesity on demographic variables resulted in raising adjusted R2 to 0.06(P=.000) ; therefore, the contribution rate of obesity on the diastolic blood pressure was 3.0%. On the next step, adding the variable serum lipids on the obesity and demographic variables resulted in raising the adjusted R2 to 0.09(p=.000) ; therefore, the contribution rate of serum lipid on the diastolic pressure was 3.0%. Finally, adding life style-related variables on all other variables resulted in raising the adjusted R2 to 0.12(p=.000) ; therefore, the contribution rate of life style-related variables on the systolic blood pressure after adjustment for obesity, serum lipids, and demographic variables was 3.0%.

PURPOSE: This study was to investigate the relationship between blood pressure, lipids and body mass index by smoking status among adolescents. METHODS: This study was designed as a descriptive correlational study. General and smoking characteristics were collected using a questionnaire. The smoking group consisted of 42 (33%) students and the non smoking group 85 (67%) students. Blood pressure, lipids, height and weight were measured, and body mass index was calculated to kg/m2. The collected data was analyzed by the n(%), chi-square-test, t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient (SPSS 12.0). RESULTS: 1. The smoking level was different between grade, smoking status among the family, the contentment of their relationship with their parents, school life and teachers. 2. The smoking group's systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, triglyceride, low density lipoprotein cholesterol and body mass index were higher than those of the non smoking group. 3. The smoking amount had a significant positive correlation between total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein cholesterol. CONCLUSION: The result of this study offered basic data to develop intervention programs to prevent hypertension and hyperlipidemia in smoking adolescents.