Blood pressure curve
A blood pressure curve is a graphic representation of the course of blood pressure over time . In most cases the arterial blood pressure curve is used. It can be recorded by invasive pressure measurement .
Origin and appearance
With every single heartbeat, blood volume is supplied to the arterial system, which cannot flow away again immediately because the peripheral, smaller arteries offer a resistance. This creates a pressure which corresponds to the maximum systolic blood pressure and which is dependent on the elasticity of the arteries, especially the aorta . Due to the counterpressure of the large arteries on the blood, the blood then flows to the periphery and the pressure drops until it falls to the value shortly before the next heartbeat, the so-called diastolic blood pressure.
Manifestations
The shape and amplitude of the blood pressure curve vary depending on the location, size and condition of the vessel. In the arterial area close to the heart, the closure of the aortic valve results in an incision , whereby the arterial systolic pressure, the incision minimum, the incision maximum and the arterial diastolic pressure follow one another over the course of a period of the arterial blood pressure curve. The sequence of minimum and maximum incisions blurs towards the periphery and divides the pressure curve into a dicrotic wave. The reasons for this are hydrodynamic effects that are caused by the nature of the vessel walls, as well as by the reflections of the pulse wave at the vascular forks.
In the peripheral arteries below (when standing: the leg), the hydrostatic pressure has an additive effect on the vascular pressure.
literature
- St. Silbernagl and A. Despopoulos: Pocket Atlas of Physiology . 6th edition, Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, p. 207.
- Klinke, Pape, Kurtz, Silbernagl: Physiology . 6th edition, Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart 2010, pp. 183–191.