Blood pressure (BP) is the pressure exerted by the circulating blood on the walls of blood vessels. For each heart beat the blood pressure varies between systolic and diastolic pressures.
Systolic Pressure and Diastolic Pressure: Systolic pressure is the peak pressure in the arteries, when the ventricles are contracting. It occurs towards the end of cardiac cycle. Diastolic pressure is the minimum pressure on the arteries when the ventricles are relaxing. The standard values of systolic and diastolic pressures for a resting healthy adult are 120mm Hg and 80mm Hg respectively. Usually written as 120/80 mm Hg and read as one twenty over eighty. The systolic and diastolic pressures are not fixed and they may undergo natural variations from one heart beat to another. They are related to the factors such as stress, disease, nutritional factors etc. Hypertension is the condition in which the arterial pressure of the patient is abnormally high whereas hypotension is the condition where the arterial pressure is abnormally low. The difference between systolic and diastolic pressure is called pulse pressure and the standard value is 40mm Hg.
Blood pressure (BP) is one of the most commonly measured physiological parameter. Normally we classify blood pressure measurements into two categories – Indirect (Non Invasive) blood pressure measurement and Direct (Invasive) blood pressure measurement.