Increasing daytime vascular resistance with progressive hypertension in ambulant patients.

Twenty-four-hour recordings of intra-arterial blood pressure, heart rate, and calculation of the index of peripheral vascular resistance were obtained in 20 untreated ambulant hypertensive patients during their routine activities outside the hospital. Blood pressures and heart rates were higher during the day, with a mean night-to-day increase of 22%, 34%, and 26%, for systolic, diastolic, and mean pressures, respectively. The average increase in the heart rate was 32%.

An index of peripheral vascular resistance.

An index of peripheral vascular resistance, derived from directly measured arterial pressure, has been developed and tested in an animal model. Assuming a mono-exponential character for diastole, the time constant for direct arterial pressure decay in the central aorta was obtained with high-fidelity recording techniques from six anaesthetized dogs. Changes in peripheral resistance were induced by infusion of phenylephrine or nitroprusside.

Clinical engineering as an academic discipline.

This paper includes sections written by the current or former Clinical Engineering coordinators of five universities on common problems faced by Clinical Engineering (CE) educational programs and the different solutions adopted on various campuses. The problems discussed include student recruitment, financial support, containment of student credit hours and faculty time, retention of CE graduates in the profession, and differentiation between Clinical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering Technology.

Present use of clinical engineering in hospitals: a nationwide survey.

To determine the present involvement of clinical engineers in hospitals, 1120 hospitals with more than 250 beds were surveyed. Replies were received from 573 inquiries for a 51% return. Sixty percent of the respondents stated that they presently have in-house service, 31% employ clinical engineers, and 29% only employ BMET's.

Keeping up with...new roles in health care: the clinical engineer.

Most managers are well aware of the costs related to purchasing, installing and maintaining sophisticated medical instrumentation. Can these costs be reduced by hiring an in-house clinical engineer? The authors consider a number of alternatives in addressing this one area of soaring medical costs.