SRU alumna, professors’ blood pressure study published

March 26, 2021

Two Slippery Rock University professors and an SRU alumna recently had their research about interarm difference in blood pressure published in the Journal of Hypertension, the official journal of the International Society of Hypertension. Melanie Clark, a 2018 SRU graduate with a degree in exercise science, was the lead author of the study, titled “Magnitude and significance of interarm blood pressure differences in children and adolescents.” Michael Holmstrup and Brock Jensen, both associate professors of exercise and rehabilitative sciences, were among the co-authors. Clark, a doctoral candidate at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, first began studying interarm difference in blood pressure at SRU, which led to Clark being accepted into her doctoral program at MCRI. For the latest study, Clark and the co-investigators found that blood pressure measurements in children and adolescents should be taken from both arms because small differences between arms could lead to a wrong diagnosis. This was the first study worldwide to determine the size and frequency of interarm blood pressure differences in children and adolescents.