• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.30-35
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to develop a new cuff to improve the accuracy of blood pressure measurement, and to evaluate the performance of the developed system. We added a small bladder to the normal cuff, which we refer to as the double bladder system. The system that we developed for blood pressure measurement was based on the oscillometric method using a double bladder. This system was developed in order to reduce the oscillation noise and to amplify the signal of pure blood pressure. An oscillometric signal database based on the developed system was evaluated according to the ANSI/AAMI/SP10-1992 standard. The correlation coefficients between the cuff of the double bladder and the normal cuff were 0.98 for systolic pressure and 0.94 for diastolic pressure. The mean differences and the standard deviations between the average blood pressure obtained from a mercury manometer and that obtained from an automated sphygmomanometer were -0.7mmHg and 4.9mmHg for systolic, and -1.4mmHg and 5.4mmHg for diastolic pressure. We conclude that the proposed double bladder-based cuff system improves the accuracy of oscillometric blood pressure measurement. The developed system reduces the range of error by about $44{\sim}62%$ for systolic pressure and about $6{\sim}21%$ for diastolic pressure compared to the most recently developed, commercially available sphygmomanometers.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.5 s.170
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• pp.181-188
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to develop the new cuff improving the accuracy of blood pressure measurement, and to evaluate the performance of the developed system. We added a small bladder to the normal cuff which is called the double bladder system. The developed system for blood pressure measurement was based on the oscillometric method using a double bladder. This system was developed in order to reduce the oscillation noise and to amplify the signal of pure blood pressure An oscillometric signal database based on the developed system were evaluated following the standard ANSI/AAMI/SP10-1992. The correlation coefficients between cuff of double bladder and normal cuff were 0.98 for systolic and 0.94 for diastolic. Mean differences and the standard deviations between average blood pressure of mercury sphygmomanometer and automated sphygmomanometer were -0.7mmHg and 4.9mmHg for systolic, and -1.4mmHg and 5.4mmHg for diatolic, respectively. We conclude that the proposed double bladder based cuff system improves the accuracy of the oscillometric blood pressure measurement. The developed system reduces the error range about $44\~62\%$ for systolic and about $6\~21\%$ for diastolic compared to the recently developed commercially available sphygmomanometers.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.38C no.9
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• pp.822-829
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• 2013

Hypertension is one of the most common clinical diseases, with an increasing prevalence globally. Hypertension triggers various harmful consequences and affects multiple organs. Life-long care may be required in some cases. According to the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of hypertension is gradually increasing. A 2011 survey revealed that 28.9% of Korean adults had hypertension. The prevalence rates were slightly higher among men than women. Accurate measurement of blood pressure(BP) is crucial to classify patients, to identify BP-related risks, and to inform correct treatment. For accurate blood pressure measurement, the use of a cuff bladder size appropriate for the mid-upper arm circumference(MUAC) is essential. Incorrect sized cuff bladder is one of the main causes of equipment error affecting sphygmomanometer accuracy. When commercial sphygmomanometers were examined, the cuff bladders differed from the dimensions specified in the ISO 81060-1:2007 standards. Undercuffing is responsible for a spurious overestimation of BP in patients with large arms leading to overdiagnosis of hypertension, whereas overcuffing (that is, use of relatively large cuffs with small arms), may be responsible for an opposite problem, leading to erroneous underestimation of BP levels. The cuff bladder sizes recommended by the American Heart Association(AHA) are an arm circumference(AC) of 17-25 cm for small-sized adults, AC of 24-32 cm for adults, AC of 32-42 cm for normal-sized adults, and AC of 42-50 cm for obese adults. In contrast, the AC of Korean adults ranges from 23-31 cm, belonging to a single type of adult bladder. Three types of bladders are necessary for Korean adults with an AC of 23-31cm. Hospitals often use one or two differently-sized Western cuffs for adult patients, which can yield inaccurate BP determinations. Cuff bladders with dimensions based on anthropometric reference data obtained from Koreans will aid hospitals to measure BP more accurately.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.281-286
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• 2003

Blood Pressure is one of the most fundamental Parameters which reflects physical conditions medically and the blood pressure measurement system using oscillometric method is a Non-Invasive Blood Pressure measurement device by measuring arterial Pressure through a cuff. In this paper. we designed a inflatable wrist blood pressure system which measures blood Pressure during the stepping inflation in the wrist cuff. The hardware system consists of a main power unit, a bladder in cuff unit, signal detection units, signal Processing units. a wireless data transmission unit, and a data display unit. We evaluated the reliability of this system by comparing and analyzing systolic. diastolic blood Pressure, and heart rate with other commercial blood Pressure measurement devices. Characteristic ratio values used to determine systolic and diastolic blood Pressure using MAA(Maximum Amplitude Algorithm) were 0.436 and 0.671 respectively.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.94-103
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• 1996

Background : Blood pressure is an important indicator in diagnosis and assessing treatment of a patient. Clinical staffs use blood pressure on the assumption that measured value is accurate and reliable. However, whether measured blood pressure is accurate has been rarely investigated in Korea. Objectives : The aims of this study are to evaluate clinical staffs' knowledge and technique as well as accuracy of sphygmomanometer. Also the program to improve the measurement is developed. Methods : Seventy-three registered nurses were asked nine multiple choice questions including Korotkoff sound, cuff size, and deflation rate. Simultaneously characteristics of nurses were examined, age, working place, duration of employment and academic degree. A testing videotape(Standardizing Measurement Video-Tutored Course) was used for evaluating the accuracy of measurement. Testees were to read and record the 12 cases of blood pressure measurement, watching a falling mercury column and hearing Korotkoff sounds. After 10 minutes' education, they were again tested with the same cases. Additionally, 83 mercury sphygmomanometers were checked to find defects such as inaccurate calibration and zero setting, leaky bladder, etc. Results: For the knowledge testing correct response rate was 41.1%. They were the lowest in selecting the proper cuff size and Korotkoff sound. In examining accuracy of blood pressure with videotape, nurses had 67.7% correct response rate. The correct response rate was significantly improved by a session of education. About 23% of sphygmomanometers was without discernable defects. Conclusion : The knowledge and skill of clinical staffs along with the accuracy of equipment have to be improved. A properly designed education program would contribute to the accuracy improvement of blood pressure measurement. Also, more concerns should be given to the precision and maintenance of equipment.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.1131-1132
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• 2013

Background: Upper tract transitional cell carcinomas (UTCC) are relatively uncommon but prognosis is generally worse than TCC of bladder. Methods: Between March 2004 and June 2012, patients with initial non-metastatic UTCC were assessed in the Medical Oncology and Urology Departments of Ataturk Training and Research Hospital. Results: A total of 11 patients with initially non-metastatic UTCC were detected in the 8 year period, all males. Median age of was 62 (range, 38-74). Six lesions were located in the renal pelvis and 5 in the ureter. Nephroureterectomy was performed in 9 patients, and distal ureterectomy and cuff excision of the bladder in the remaining 2. The majority (n= 9) had high grade tumors. Median primary tumor diameter was 3.5 cm (range, 0.7-10). Five patients (45.5%) were stage I, 2 (18.2%) were stage II, and 4 (36.4%) were stage III. While adjuvant chemotherapy was not applied for stage I and II disease (n= 7), 4 to 6 courses were applied for 3 of the stage III patients. Also one stage III case received adjuvant radiotherapy. Up to 100 months follow-up, median overall survival was 13 months (range, 5-100 months). While stage I and II patients are following-up without muscle-invasive progression, 2 of stage III patients demonstrated progression. Conclusion: We need more collaborative studies to determine management of especially pT3-pT4 patients with UTCC.