Blood Pressure

Blood pressure (strictly speaking: vascular pressure) refers to the force exerted by circulating blood on the walls of blood vessels, and constitutes one of the principal vital signs. more...

Home
Bath & Body
Dietary Supplements,...
Hair Care
Hair Removal
Health Care
Makeup
Massage
Medical, Special Needs
Bathroom Safety
Braces, Supports
Hearing Assistance
Incontinence Aids
Mobility Equipment
Monitoring, Testing
Blood Pressure
Arm
Other
Wrist
Diabetes
Accu-Chek
OneTouch
Other
Glucose Monitors
Lancets
Monitoring Kits
Other
Test Strips
Other Monitoring, Testing
Stethoscopes
Thermometers
Orthotics, Insoles
Other
Positioning Equipment
Respiratory Aids
Nail
Natural Therapies
Oral Care
Skin Care
Vision Care

The pressure of the circulating blood decreases as blood moves through arteries, arterioles, capillaries, and veins; the term blood pressure generally refers to arterial pressure, i.e., the pressure in the larger arteries, arteries being the blood vessels which take blood away from the heart. Arterial pressure is most commonly measured via a sphygmomanometer, which uses the height of a column of mercury to reflect the circulating pressure (see Non-invasive measurement). Although many modern vascular pressure devices no longer use mercury, vascular pressure values are still universally reported in millimetres of mercury (mmHg).

The systolic arterial pressure is defined as the peak pressure in the arteries, which occurs near the beginning of the cardiac cycle; the diastolic arterial pressure is the lowest pressure (at the resting phase of the cardiac cycle). The average pressure throughout the cardiac cycle is reported as mean arterial pressure; the pulse pressure reflects the difference between the maximum and minimum pressures measured.

Typical values for a resting, healthy adult human are approximately 120 mmHg (16 kPa) systolic and 80 mmHg (11 kPa) diastolic (written as ¹²⁰/₈₀ mmHg, and spoken as \"one twenty over eighty\") with large individual variations. These measures of arterial pressure are not static, but undergo natural variations from one heartbeat to another and throughout the day (in a circadian rhythm); they also change in response to stress, nutritional factors, drugs, or disease. Hypertension refers to arterial pressure being abnormally high, as opposed to hypotension, when it is abnormally low. Along with body temperature, blood pressure measurements are the most commonly measured physiological parameters.

Measurement

Arterial pressures can be measured invasively (by penetrating the skin and measuring inside the blood vessels) or non-invasively. The former is usually restricted to a hospital setting.

Non-invasive measurement

The non-invasive auscultatory (from the Latin for listening) and oscillometric measurements are simpler and quicker than invasive measurements, require less expertise in fitting, have virtually no complications, and are less unpleasant and painful for the patient. However, non-invasive measures may yield somewhat lower accuracy and small systematic differences in numerical results. Non-invasive measurement methods are more commonly used for routine examinations and monitoring.

Read more at Wikipedia.org