STUDIES ON BLOOD PRESSURE OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS

Abstract

With 104 middle school girls in Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture, blood pressure was determined every other month for 3 years beginning at the age of 12 years. At the same time, somatoscopy and investigation for menarche were also carried. 1) The systolic blood pressure tended to rise each year, and this tendency was more remarkable in the urban than in the rural quarters.2) Regional difference in the blood pressure was already observed in girls in puberty. Namery, averge systolic blood pressure for girls in rural quarters tended to be higher than those in urban quarters. This tendency was observed more distinctly when groups of nearly the same sexual maturation were compared. 3) Seasonal periodicity of the systolic blood pressure could not be seen so evidently in this age group. 4) Between the systolic blood pressure, body weight, height and sitting height, there was positibe correlation, not of a high degree, though statistically significant. When group of nearly the same sexual maturation were compared, correlation index was still smaller. 5) Temporal relation between menarche and blood pressure change (mainly rise) was intimate, the majority showing remarkable cange in the systolic blood pressure within several months around menarche. 6) Temporary rise in the systolic blood pressure due to mental tension was more remarkable in hypertensive group than in the normal. In the majority it dropped to the stable state in several minutes. 7) When the systolic blood pressure of over 130mmHg was designated as hypertension, its rate gradually rose from the age of adout 12 years, and was higher in the rural quarters than in the urban. 8) Hypertension in puberal girls was mostly transient, but there were also a few cases in whom it persisted for 23 years.