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Name: ________________________
Medical Physics
Pulse Frequency and Blood Pressure
In medicine, a person's pulse is the throbbing of their arteries as an effect of the
heartbeat. Pulse is also used, although incorrectly, to denote the frequency of the
heart beat, usually measured in beats per minute. A normal pulse rate for a
healthy adult, while resting, can range from 60 to 100 beats per minute (BPM).
During sleep, this can drop to as low as 40 BPM; during strenuous exercise, it
can rise as high as 150–200 BPM. Generally, pulse rates are higher in younger people. The resting
heart rate for an infant is usually close to an adult's pulse rate during strenuous exercise.
EXP: Measure your resting pulse rate (manually or with the help of a monitoring
device) and enter the values into the following table. After an intensive phase of
physical activity of approx. 1 minute (knee bends, jumping jacks, …) measure your
pulse rate every half minute and insert the values.
name
resting
pulse rate
(in min-1)
pulse
maximum
after
pulse rate
00:30
pulse
after
01:00
pulse
after
01:30
pulse
after
02:00
pulse
after
02:30
pulse
after
03:00
Now, draw a graph showing the decreasing of the pulse rate after the physical activity.
Definition: Blood pressure (strictly speaking: vascular pressure) refers to the force exerted by
circulating blood on the walls of blood vessels, and constitutes one of the principal vital signs. The
pressure of the circulating blood decreases as blood moves through arteries, arterioles, capillaries,
and veins; the term blood pressure generally refers to arterial pressure, i.e., the pressure in the
larger arteries, arteries being the blood vessels which take blood away from the heart. Arterial
pressure is most commonly measured via a sphygmomanometer. Although the SI-unit of pressure is
__________, blood pressure values are still universally reported in millimetres of mercury (mmHg).
The systolic arterial pressure is defined as the peak pressure in the arteries, which occurs near the
beginning of the cardiac cycle; the diastolic arterial pressure is the lowest pressure (at the resting
phase of the cardiac cycle).
© Mag. Susanne Neumann – BRG XIV ([email protected])
EXP: Measure your blood pressure using a checking device.
Place the cuff around the upper left arm, at roughly the same vertical height as the heart. The cuff is
inflated until the artery is completely occluded. As the pressure in the cuff falls, a "whooshing" or
pounding sound can be heard using a stethoscope, when blood flow first starts again in the artery.
The pressure at which this sound began is noted and recorded as the systolic blood pressure. The
cuff pressure is further released until the sound can no longer be heard and this is recorded as the
diastolic blood pressure.
My blood pressure values:
__________ (syst) : _____________ (diast.)
_____ blood pressure values: __________ (syst) : _____________ (diast.)
Typical values for a resting, healthy adult human are approximately 120 mmHg systolic and
80 mmHg diastolic (written as 120/80 mmHg, and spoken as "one twenty over eighty") with large
individual variations. These measures of arterial pressure are not static, but undergo natural
variations from one heartbeat to another and throughout the day; they also change in response to
stress, nutritional factors, drugs, or disease.
Why do blood pressure values differ when recorded sitting and lying?
Insert the following words correctly:
heart attack, stress, overweight, vertigo, apopletic stroke, hypotension, arterioscelerosis, tiredness,
hypertension, hereditary, hypofunction of thyroid gland, smoking;
(Chronic)
high blood pressure
Technical Term
Cause
Consequences
© Mag. Susanne Neumann – BRG XIV ([email protected])
(Chronic)
low blood pressure