The use of SI units in medicine: a WHO memorandum

In view of the widespread difficulties being encountered in introducing the kilopascal for blood pressure measurements, the 1981 World Health Assembly endorsed an earlier recommendation for a gradual change to the SI unit, but recommended that both the millimetre of mercury and the kilopascal be used simultaneously in the interim. A new name, "the sievert" (Sv), for the SI unit of dose equivalent (ionizing radiation), and other changes related to the "litre", the "candela", and the "radian" and "steradian" are reported.