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The Meaning of Vital Signs

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Textbook of Rapid Response Systems

Abstract

The four classic vital signs are respiratory rate, temperature, pulse rate and blood pressure. Although their measurement has been standard practice for over a century, there have been few attempts to quantify their clinical performance. Until recently, the largest study of respiratory rate was performed by Hutchinson in 1846 and the largest studies on fever remain those performed by Wunderlich in the nineteenth century.

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Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge the help of all the medical, nursing and administrative staff of Nenagh Hospital in the collection of data that made this paper possible. In particular, we would like to thank Mrs. Marie Kennedy for her meticulous help.

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  1. Department of Medicine, Nenagh Hospital, Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland

    John Kellett

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  1. John Kellett
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  2. Breda Deane
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  3. Margaret Gleeson
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Correspondence to John Kellett .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Dewey Street 125, Edgewood, 15218-1407, Pennsylvania, USA

    Michael A. DeVita

  2. Liverpool Hospital, Dept. Intensive Care, University of New South Wales, Locked Bag 7103, Liverpool, 1871, New South Wales, Australia

    Ken Hillman

  3. Dept. Intensive Care, Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre, Studley Road, Heidelberg, 3084, Victoria, Australia

    Rinaldo Bellomo

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Kellett, J., Deane, B., Gleeson, M. (2011). The Meaning of Vital Signs. In: DeVita, M., Hillman, K., Bellomo, R. (eds) Textbook of Rapid Response Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-92853-1_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-92853-1_11

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