Placebinex
12-20-2008, 04:36 PM
How the blood pressure equipment works:
The cuff is designed to impede blood flow and measure the pressure within the artery. The stethoscope is used to listen to the blood flow to provide audible marker points for the pressure reading.
This is how it works, the doc or nurse will pump up the cuff to impede the blood flow, and this provides an audio queue of no sound through the stethoscope.
The pressure is slowly released from the cuff, once an audible sound is heard the pressure is noted. This represents the systolic pressure, the pressure in the artery when your heart contracts. Top number.
The slow release of the pressure is continued after the systolic reading is noted; the next audible queue is the disappearance of the blood flow sound. This point represents your diastolic blood pressure, the pressure in the artery when your heart is at rest. Bottom number.
Since these readings rely on interpretation of an audio queue, three are required for an accurate blood pressure reading.
The cuff is designed to impede blood flow and measure the pressure within the artery. The stethoscope is used to listen to the blood flow to provide audible marker points for the pressure reading.
This is how it works, the doc or nurse will pump up the cuff to impede the blood flow, and this provides an audio queue of no sound through the stethoscope.
The pressure is slowly released from the cuff, once an audible sound is heard the pressure is noted. This represents the systolic pressure, the pressure in the artery when your heart contracts. Top number.
The slow release of the pressure is continued after the systolic reading is noted; the next audible queue is the disappearance of the blood flow sound. This point represents your diastolic blood pressure, the pressure in the artery when your heart is at rest. Bottom number.
Since these readings rely on interpretation of an audio queue, three are required for an accurate blood pressure reading.