Need help on Blood pressure conversion

[Galatea]

Hello! I'm trying to convert American style blood psi (92/60) to European standards, and vice versa : what does 16/9 mean ? I think its cm/Hg but I don't know what Hg is exactly, despite looking in several reference books. Thanks for your help!

[Knight]

Hello! I'm trying to convert American style blood psi (92/60) to European standards, and vice versa : what does 16/9 mean ? I think its cm/Hg but I don't know what Hg is exactly, despite looking in several reference books. Thanks for your help!

To answer your questions in order:

1) 92/60 mm Hg would be 12.26/8 kPa.
2) 16/9 kPa would be 120/67.5 mm Hg.
3) Hg is the chemical symbol for Mercury.

You see, the United States uses metric units for blood pressure. The units are in mm of mercury displacement. That is, the amount of pressure necessary to raise a column of mercury so many millimeters. The "European" units that you are looking for are another SI unit, the Kilopascal.

The reason for the switch to different units has a number of drivers, including the fact that mercury is a non-degradable, bioaccumable toxic substance, which is a serious threat to marine biology and there is mounting pressure from environmentalists to have it banned from use in hospitals.

To convert mm Hg into kilopascals divide by 7.5. To convert Kilopascals to mm Hg, multiply by 7.5