What does systolic blood pressure measure?

It is the highest pressure reached in the arteries, when the left ventricle contracts and forces blood into the aorta.

What does diastolic blood pressure measure?

It is the lowest arterial pressure, reached while the ventricles are relaxed and refilling.

How is a manual sphygmomanometer used to measure blood pressure?

A cuff is wrapped around the upper arm at heart level and inflated until it stops the flow in the brachial artery, then deflated slowly while a stethoscope is used to listen over the artery below the cuff.

How is the diastolic pressure identified when using a manual sphygmomanometer?

It is the cuff pressure at which the sounds disappear, because the artery is no longer squeezed at any point in the cycle and the flow becomes smooth and silent.

OCR A-Level Biology B H422

The Developing Cell: Cell Division and Cell Differentiation

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Transport Systems in Mammals

Measuring and interpreting blood pressure

3 things to know
Components 01, 02 and 03

Overview

Recall questions on systolic and diastolic pressure in mmHg, measuring blood pressure with manual and electronic sphygmomanometers and their advantages, reliable readings, hypertension and its consequences for the arteries and heart, hypotension, and calculating pulse pressure.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Evaluation

Why can a single blood pressure reading mislead, what can untreated hypertension lead to, and what is the pulse pressure for a reading of 118/76 mmHg?

Key term

State the unit in which blood pressure is conventionally recorded.

Key term

What is heard when the cuff pressure of a manual sphygmomanometer first falls below the systolic pressure?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What does systolic blood pressure measure?
Model answer
It is the highest pressure reached in the arteries, when the left ventricle contracts and forces blood into the aorta.
2
What does diastolic blood pressure measure?
Model answer
It is the lowest arterial pressure, reached while the ventricles are relaxed and refilling.
3
State the unit in which blood pressure is conventionally recorded.
Model answer
Millimetres of mercury, written mmHg.
4
How is a manual sphygmomanometer used to measure blood pressure?
Model answer
A cuff is wrapped around the upper arm at heart level and inflated until it stops the flow in the brachial artery, then deflated slowly while a stethoscope is used to listen over the artery below the cuff.
5
What is heard when the cuff pressure of a manual sphygmomanometer first falls below the systolic pressure?
Model answer
A tapping sound begins as blood spurts through the partly compressed artery, and the cuff pressure at that moment is the systolic pressure.
6
How is the diastolic pressure identified when using a manual sphygmomanometer?
Model answer
It is the cuff pressure at which the sounds disappear, because the artery is no longer squeezed at any point in the cycle and the flow becomes smooth and silent.

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