Blood pressure testing
BLOOD
In patients of both groups, SBP and DBP were measured using a blood pressure monitor (Omron, Dalian, China) before and after 12 weeks of treatment. Blood pressure measurements were implemented at 8–10 a.m. All patients took a sitting position, emptied their bladders, stopped smoking and drinking stimulating beverages within 30 min before measurement, and took the right upper arm for measurement after 20 min of meditation. Three consecutive measurements were taken for each patient, with an interval of 3 min each, and the mean value was taken.After 12 weeks of treatment, SBP and DBP in the tail artery of each group of rats in the awake state were measured from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. using a fully automatic rat non-invasive blood pressure measurement system (BP-300 A, Techman, Chengdu, China). Each rat was measured three times consecutively with an interval of 3 min each time, and the average value was taken. The standardized measurements were performed by dedicated personnel to minimize the error.