Blood-pressure primer : the sphygmomanometer and its practical application / by Francis Ashley Faught.

  • Faught, Francis Ashley, 1881-1963.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Blood-pressure primer : the sphygmomanometer and its practical application / by Francis Ashley Faught. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    TiiK Diastolic Pkkssuuk causes, might be actually misleading, as under the fol- lowing conditions: In decomi)ensaled cardio-renal cases where the maximal pressure may be normal, it is only by determining the abnormal elevation of the diastolic pressure and consequent reduction in ])ulse- pressure that we are able to clinically confirm the cir- culatory fault. The minimuni pressure represents the true constant load borne by the arterial tree and the resistance which the heart is obliged to overcome before its contents can be expelled. Both data of fundamental importance from the clinical pathologic standpoint. It has been found also that the diastolic pressure is a far more constant factor in normal individuals than the systolic, that it is practically the same for all parts of the arterial tree, while the maximal pressure drops progressively from aorta to periphery. W. R. Sheldon, Medical Record, December 31st, 1910, adds the following to our already rapidly in- creasing information: The lessened elasticity of the arteries which is found in many conditions contributes to an abnormal relation between the diastolic and systolic pressure, so that in long-continued high blood-pressure, due to les- sened elasticity in the artery, there is a failure of the diastolic pressure to maintain its normal relation. The pulse-pressure is increased and we can, by the formula already described, estimate the amount of extra work which is demanded by the high pressure incident to arterial rigidity. From these we can draw the follow- ing corollary, which is, that increased strain on the heart is to a large degree measured by the amount of diastolic failure, i. e., the larger the pulse-pressure in