International journal of epidemiology
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Comparative Study
Comparison of the conical cuff and the standard rectangular cuffs.
In this study the applicability of the conical cuff in the measurement of arterial blood pressure in the general population was investigated. A wide range of arm circumferences was used for non-invasive comparative measurements of brachial artery pressures, using the standard rectangular sphygmomanometer cuffs and a recently developed conical cuff. ⋯ The lower pressure results in obese individuals were probably related to the fact that the conical cuff generally was found to fit better on larger upper arms than the large rectangular cuff. We conclude that in all likelihood blood pressure is more accurately measured in obese people with the use of a conical cuff and therefore warrants further investigation.
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Letter Biography Historical Article
John Snow, the Broad Street pump and modern epidemiology.
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Cohort mortality between 1875 and 1975 in Japan from cancers of the oesophagus, tongue, and larynx were examined. Death rates were compared with per capita alcohol and tobacco use which are major aetiological agents for these tumours in Westernized countries. ⋯ More consistent with this low drinking pattern are the rates for cancers of the tongue which remain among the lowest in the world. Cancers of the larynx, which have been associated with tobacco and alcohol, declined among successive cohorts, which was in contrast to the sharp cohort increases for lung cancers and tobacco use in Japan during the same period.
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Biography Historical Article
John Snow, the broad street pump and modern epidemiology.
John Snow was a genius in epidemiology. His achievement was to evolve an elegant, internally and externally consistent theory which concerned the mechanisms and processes involved in every aspect of the subject he had chosen to study. ⋯ He published his theory, and practical suggestions for the prevention of cholera arising out it, both internally in medical meetings and to the medical press, and to the public in the form of pamphlets and in reports addressed to the appropriate authority. This surely should be the objective of all epidemiological work.