Different breathing pattern and its effect on automated systolic blood pressure (sbp) of healthy subjects

Generally, deep breathing has been established to reduce blood pressure (BP).Besides, during inhalation BP is known to decrease while it increases during exhalation. To implement this idea to effectively and efficiently decrease BP, different breathing pattern involving differences in times of inhalation and exhalation could be very significant. This study will aim at quantitatively exploring the upshot of different breathing patterns on automated Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP). Forty healthy subjects that include 25 males and 15 females (aged between 18 to 60 years) were employed in this study. Automate SBP were measured using clinically authorized automated BP device. Two repeated measurement sessions was taken for each subject. For each session, eight BP measurements were obtained. The eight BP measurements involve: four measurements during breathing using different patterns (Pattern 1 to Pattern 4) (Pattern 1: (4.5s of inhalation and 4.5s of exhalation); Pattern 2: (6s of inhalation and 2s of exhalation); Pattern 3: (2s of inhalation and 6s of exhalation); Pattern 4: (1.5s of inhalation and 1.5s of exhalation), and another four measurements of the same measurement after a one-minute rest interval. Two baseline BP measurements exist under resting condition at the beginning and end of the two measurement sessions. Lastly, the effect of different breathing patterns on automated SBP during and after deep breathing was analysed in comparison with the automated baseline SBP. Experimental results showed that overall automated SBP measured during deep breathing in Patterns 1, 2 and 4 decreased significantly by 3.7 ± 5.7mmHg, 3.9 ± 5.2 mmHg and 3.3 ± 5.3 mmHg respectively (all p < 0.001)except for Pattern 3 where automated SBP decreased only by 1.7 ± 5.9 mmHg with p value (p < 0.05). Similarly, after deep breathing, automated SBP went back to normal with no significant difference when compared with baseline BP (all p>0.05, except for SBP in pattern 4 with a mean difference of 1.9±3.5 mmHg). In conclusion, a decrease in automated SBP with different breathing patterns has been quantitatively demonstrated with Pattern 2 being most effective, however slow and deep breathing (Pattern 3) inclines to be the best relaxed pattern for subjects to practice.