Background Flashcards
What is a normal blood pressure?
Less than 120 systolic, less than 80 diastolic
What is systolic pressure?
The pressure put on the arteries when the heart contracts and pushes blood through the arteries to the rest of the body.
What is the diastolic pressure?
The pressure in the arteries when the heart is at rest between beats.
What is the mean average pressure (MAP)?
The average pressure in a patients arteries udring one cardiac cycle
Why is blood pressure important?
It provides the driving force for tissue perfusion (force per unit area acting on arteries)
Is blood pressure uniform throughout the body?
No, gravity e.g. in the head and feet affects BP. We typically measure BP at the level of the heart.
BP is a physiologically regulated variable. This is why ambulatory BP measurements are taken over 24 hours in clinical diagnosis. What physiological factors can affect BP?
Anxiety , medication, stress
