FEMALE SEXUAL MATURATION AND BLOOD PRESSURE (SECONDARY-SEX CHARACTERISTICS, GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT)

This study described the relationship of sexual maturation and blood pressure in a sample (n = 361) of white females, ages seven through 18, attending public schools in a defined area of Central Texas during October through December, 1984. Other correlates of blood pressure were also described for this sample.^ A survey was performed to obtain the data on height, weight, body mass, pulse rate, upper arm circumference and length, and blood pressure. Each subject self-assessed her secondary sex characteristics (breast and pubic hair) according to drawings of the Tanner stages of maturation. The subjects were interviewed to obtain data on personal health habits and menstrual status. Student age, ethnic group and place of residence were abstracted from school records. Parents or guardians of the subjects responded to a questionnaire pertaining to parental and subject health history and parents' occupation and educational attainment.^ In the simple linear regression analysis, sexual maturation and variables of body size were significantly (p < 0.001) and positively associated with systolic and fourth- and fifth-phase diastolic blood pressure. The demographic and socioeconomic variables were not sufficiently variant in this population to have differential effects on the relation between blood pressure and maturation. Stepwise multiple regression was used to assess the contribution of sexual maturation to the variance of blood pressure after accounting for the variables of body size. Sexual maturation (breast stage) along with weight, height and body mass remained in the multiple regression models for fourth- and fifth-phase diastolic blood pressure. Only height and body mass remained in the regression model for systolic blood pressure; sexual maturation did not contribute more to the explanation of the systolic blood pressure variance.^ The association of sexual maturation with blood pressure level was established in this sample of young white females. More research is needed first, to determine if this relationship prevails in other populations of young females, and second, to determine the relationship of sexual maturation sequence and change with the change of blood pressure during childhood and adolescence. ^

Anatomia in qua tota humani corporis fabrica... Amstelodami, Ioannes Ianssonius, 1617

A paper affixed to the rear free endpaper of the item states that is edition contains “fine reproductions of the Gemini plates.” “Thomas Geminus was a a pseudonym for Thomas Lambrit, an engraver and printer…shown as active from about 1540; he died in May 1562.” http://www.arsanatomica.lib.ed.ac.uk/geminus.html accessed 11/20/2012. Geminus (Lambrit) printed Compendiosa totius anatomiae delineation aere exarata in 1545 copied from Vesalius’ 1543, De humani corporis fabrica . (Wellcome Library catalog, accessed 11/20/2012.) This book is a 1617 reproduction of the engraved copperplates which Lambrit himself copied from the original woodblock prints of the Vesalius’ book. Because the illustrations were based on those in the Vesalius’ book, because the name Vesalius helped sell the book, because copyright laws were not in effect, and because photocopies and digital images were not available, the author of this book is given as Andreas Vesalius. (Vesalius may or may not have been pleased.) For more information on Thomas Geminus (Lambrit) see The Anatomy of Thomas Geminus, by Geoffrey Keynes, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2413790/?page=1