Assessment of some pulmonary parameters and cardiorespiratory fitness status in Nepalese medical students.

Some pulmonary function tests along with cardio respiratory fitness test were performed to assess the health status of the young (19-21 years) non-smokers Nepalese medical students. Results revealed that the vital capacity was 3.46 liters and 2.40 liters among the boys and girls respectively. PEFR was found to be 597.98 l/min among the boys and 456.53 l/min among the girls. Likewise, VO2 max among the boys and girls were 54.32 ml/kg/min and 44.88 ml/kg/min respectively. It was evident from the result that the health status of the Nepalese medical students ill the present study group was fairly well. It might be due to their health awareness, balanced-nutritious diet and the habits of occasional physical exercise.

Detection of individuals prone to develop hypertension in their future life.

Hypertension is a global burning health problem. Early detection of proneness to hypertension may help an individual to lead a healthy life by altering the life style (by diet restriction, exercise etc.). Subjects at high risk of future hypertension e.g. the persons of hypertensive family and/or having high resting heart rate etc. show blood pressure hyper-responsiveness to stress. Elevated blood pressure due to sympathetic stimulation prevailed longer time in susceptible persons. In the present study sympathetic stimulation exerted through cold pressor test (hand immersion up to the wrist in 4 degrees C water) resulted in elevation of blood pressure and heart rate in all young male normotensive individuals (age 18-35 years, n=72). Nevertheless, blood pressure and heart rate returned to baseline, following 5 minutes of withdrawal of the stressor, in case of volunteers from normotensive families. On the other hand, the subjects whose parents, either or both were reported to be hypertensive showed elevated diastolic blood pressure even after 5 minutes of withdrawal of the said stressor- indicating that the autonomic nervous system in them was not competent enough for lowering the diastolic pressure quickly to baseline as observed in the volunteers from the normotensive families. The present study revealed that the young subjects who showed greater and prolonged responsiveness to diastolic blood pressure due to sympathetic stimulation through cold pressor test are prone to develop hypertension in future.

Alteration of blood pressure among the donors in a blood donation camp.

Anxiety can alter the cardiovascular parameters. In the present study, among the normotensive donors, the effect of anxiety on alteration of blood pressure and heart rate was assessed. Blood pressure and pulse rate were recorded in the volunteers just before blood donation and the results were compared with the blood pressure and heart rate recorded previously (one week before the camp) in the same population. There was a rise of both systolic and diastolic blood pressure with a significant increase in pulse rate just before blood donation. As the donors had previous experience of blood donation; the mental stress just before blood donation can be regarded as known stress -- which caused increase in norepinephrine secretion leading to peripheral vasoconstrictions and rise in diastolic blood pressure. Anxiety through sympathetic stimulation increased the heart rate, cardiac output and systolic blood pressure.