CVS 16: Responses to cardiovascular stress Flashcards
What is the pressure gradient in the body?
- Blood above the heart is at a lower pressure
- Blood below the heart is at higher pressure
What is the problem with standing and why is lying down okay?
- standing: gravity pushes a column of blood from your head to your toes + pressure created by heart
- lying: Effect of gravity is the same across the body
Where is blood pressure normally taken from and why?
Taken from the arm
-> it is level with the heart so gravity isn’t an issue
What are the effects of standing on arteries?
- gravity has little impact
- very muscular so muscle maintains the bp in the arteries
Explain the effects of standing on veins?
- less muscular –> VENOUS DISTENSION
- blood in veins in lower limbs trying to return to heart
- gravity pushes it back down
- veins stretch-> blood pools in lower leg veins-> less blood in arteries-> lower bp
What happens to the hydrostatic pressure in the legs whilst standing?
- Increase in hydrostatic pressure
- because you have hydrostatic pressure generated by the heart and then the effect of gravity
So what happens to fluid movement in the legs whilst standing?
- More fluid loss to the interstitial compartment from the capillary which reduces the circulating blood volume
Why might standing induce a hypotensive effect?
- more blood in veins
- less blood re-entering the veins, more fluid lost to tissues but fluid returned slowly through lymphatics
- end-diastolic volume (ventricular filling) determines stroke volume
- less blood in veins returning to heart
- less ventricular filling (lower diastole) so volume of blood ejected during systole decreases as well
= TRANSIENT HYPOTENSION
What detects changes in blood pressure? Where are they located?
Baroreceptors
- carotid sinus
- aortic arch
What BP are baroreceptors most sensitive at? and why
100mmHg
This is similar to the mean arterial blood pressure
In terms of nervous stimulation, what happens when you have a fall in blood pressure?
- decreased firing of the baroreceptor
- less parasympathetic stimulation and less inhibition of the sympathetic
- more noradrenaline
- increased contractility and HR –> increases CO
- increased vasoconstriction of splanchnic/ renal which increases TPR
What happens if compensatory mechanisms fail?
- brain switches off
- faint and go to heart level
Which factors increase your risk of fainting whilst standing?
- if you are taller- increased gravity and less venous return
- dehydration/ sweating
What is the consequence of a haemorrhage
A reduction in the actual circulating blood volume
What are the compensatory mechanisms for a haemorrhage?
- same compensatory mechanisms for transient hypotension so:
- increase in hr-> increase in CO
- increase in heart contractility -> increase in CO
- organ specific vasoconstriction -> increase in TPR
- AUTOTRANSFUSION