Hypertension, the abnormal elevation of blood pressure, is one of the chronic diseases that usually
comes with no symptom and signal. Hypertension is diagnosed if the systolic blood pressure (SBP)
over 140 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) is over 90 mmHg. The purpose of this paper is
to review methods of early diagnosis of hypertension by monitoring the SBP, DBP, and heart rate
(HR) non-invasively. Although accurate measurement of BP and HR of a person can be obtained
invasively, the measuring probe needs to place under patient’s skin, which in turn would cause
discomfort to the patients and not to mention the possibility of thrombosis to occur. External
pressures are necessary to induce to the artery in order to measure BP and HR by using auscultatory
and oscillometric methods, hence, a pressure cuff is used to measure BP. The pressure cuff will
restrict the motion of the patient and it is rendered not suitable for continuous monitoring. On the
other hand, pulse transit time (PTT) and photoplethysmography (PPG) methods are introduced to
measure BP non-invasively without the use of a cuff. The limitation of PTT over PPG is PTT needs
both PPG waveform and ECG waveform to estimate BP, and artificial phase lag might occur which
will affect the reliability of the measured result. Therefore, for long-term hypertension monitoring,
non-invasive mean using photoplethysmography method is preferred since it enables continuous
monitoring without cuff and it requires only one waveform to estimate the BP as well as HR.
The accurate transfer of information on the athletes’ performance in any sport is
essential in enhancing the performance and overall coaching process. The provision of such
information is favourable only if it is reliable. A cost-effective golf putting monitoring device
namely the Putt.It.In was developed for analysing a golfers’ putting performance. Objectives: This
study aims to investigate the reliability of the instrument in measuring the backswing distance, front
swing distance, clubhead speed, ideal front swing distance and swing angle. Methods: A semiprofessional
golfer (30 years of age ± 5.0 years’ experience) executed four strokes repeatedly from
a distance of 2 m and 1 m using a Ram Zebra Mallet putter on a PGM golf mat. The intra-class
correlation (ICC) coefficient is employed to test the reliability of the device whilst the
Kolmogorov/Smirnov test was utilised to further reaffirm the reliability of the application in
measuring the aforementioned parameters over test re-test between first two strokes of 2 m distance
and the last two strokes of 1 m distance. Results: The ICC reveals 0.98 and 0.96 for both test 1 and
2, as well as a Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.99 and 0.96, respectively suggesting excellent consistencies
in the overall observations. Moreover, the Kolmogorov/Smirnov test re-test indicates that there is
no significant difference between the first two 2 m strokes p > 0.05, and subsequent two 1 m strokes
p > 0.05 highlighting its ability to recognise the pattern of the strokes applied in the four successive
strokes. Conclusion: The Putt.It.In monitoring device is found to be reliable in measuring the
backswing distance, front swing distance, clubhead speed, ideal front swing distance and swing
angle. Professional and semi-professional golfers as well coaches could consider Putt.It.In device in
monitoring strokes related parameters to enhance their performance due to its effectiveness in
providing information on putting performance.