- Blood Pressure (Hypotension and Hypertension)
- What is a blood pressure reading and what do the two numbers mean?
- What exactly happens when my doctor or nurse takes my blood pressure?
- How is blood pressure produced?
- How does my body keep to a normal and healthy blood pressure?
- What does it mean if I have low blood pressure (hypotension)?
- What does it mean if I have high blood pressure (hypertension)?
As the heart beats, blood is pumped through the body so that the organs and muscles get the energy and oxygen they require for proper function.
The left ventricle chamber of the heart, which is the left lower section, is responsible for receiving oxygenated blood from the lungs which then pumps throughout the body.
In the systole phase, the ventricles of the heart contract as it pumps to push blood out of it and through the arteries. This is what gives the systolic reading.
Between each heartbeat (i.e contraction of the ventricular chamber), oxygen-poor blood is returned and fills the heart via the superior vena cava (SVC) and inferior vena cava (IVC) and enters the right atrium (right upper chamber of the heart). This is the diastole phase and is what gives you the diastolic blood pressure reading.
A single cardiac cycle finishes when the heart chambers fill with blood and the blood is pumped out of the heart.
