Nursing NUR301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Palpitations, Creatinine, Human Body Weight
Document Summary
Hypertension is a sustained elevation of systemic arterial blood pressure. It is usually defined as a systolic blood pressure that is greater than or equal 140 mmhg or a diastolic blood pressure that is greater than or equal to 90 mmhg. Hypertension is predicted to be the leading cause of death in the year 2020. Research shows that at least i in 5 adult canadians have high-normal blood pressure and up 60% of them will develop hypertension within four years (lewis, 2014). Although hypertension is a vascular problem, it can affect normal functioning of other body systems such as the cardiac, nephron and neurological functions. An adequate regulation of blood pressure is essential to prevent hypertension. Blood pressure is the force exerted by the blood against the walls of the blood vessels. Arterial bp = cardiac output (co) x systemic vascular resistance (svr) Therefore, any increase in either co or svr will raise blood pressure.
