Blood pressure: high and low and how to monitor them
Blood pressure: high and low
Blood pressure is basically the total peripheral resistance that a artery generates towards blood flow. This total peripheral resistance leads to a pressure being exerted on the vessel walls, this pressure is what our physicians measure using a device called a sphygmomanometer.
The optimal blood pressures for anybody is 120-135mmhg systolic and between 60-85mmhg diastolic and everybody needs to do a blood test.
When we talk about the systolic and diastolic blood pressures, they are in direct reference to the cardiac cycle. A systole is when the heart is in depolarization or when the heart contracts to push blood through the left ventricle into the aorta and eventually other arteries of the body. The diastole in contrast is the stage in the cardiac cycle when the heart is in repolarization or relaxation in this phase the mitral and tricuspid valves separating the left and right ventricles from the left and right atriums open and allow the blood to flow into them for the eventually systole to take pace again. Blood tests sustained values above this optimal interval in a resting state and without the influence of any other external factors for either systolic or diastolic can confirm a diagnosis of arterial hypertension or high blood pressure. And sustained values below this interval confirms a diagnosis for hypotension or low blood pressure.
Symptoms of high and low blood pressure:
primary hypertension is asymptomatic until complications develop in the target organs for eg (left ventricular failure, artherosclerotic heart disease, cerebrovascular insufficience with or without stroke and renal failure).
Incases of hypertensive encephalopathy or a hypertensive crisis in which case the blood pressure is
190mmhg systolic and >100mmhg diastolic the patient may exhibit symptoms such as dizziness, flushed faces, headache, fatigue, epistaxis or nose bleeds nervousness during a normal blood testing procedure. A fourth heart sound and a broad , notched P wave on the ECG are the first signs in clinical setting suggesting a hypertensive heart disease. Contrastingly low blood pressure causes symptoms of faintness, light headedness, dizziness, confusion, or visual blurring. With more severe cerebral hypoperfusion syncope or generalized seizures ,may supervene . exercise or a heavy meal may exacerbate phenomena usually relate to the underlying cause. Orthostatic hypotension is diagnosed when symptoms suggestive of hypotension and a marked reduction in measured BP are provoked by standing and relieved by lying down.
Causes of high blood pressure;
some of the basic causes of hypertension are as follows: BP increases with aging, diastolic BP increases with aging, but reaches maximal values between 55 and 60 years Arterial stiffness: leads to high systolic BP, but also low diastolic BP. Other risk factors which predispose a patient to hypertension are:
heredity, obesity, hypercolesterolemie, smoking, increased dietary sodium intake and carbon dioxide poisoning which causes vasoconstriction. Other causes of hypertenson include the secondary causes of hypertension which include situation such as an abnormal sodium transort across the cell walls causng a dysfunction of the sodium potassium pump, stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system, or a dysfunction n the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system causing renovascular hypertension.
