When taking someone's blood pressure, the first number is the systolic blood pressure the second is the diastolic blood pressure. The systolic blood pressure measures the pressure of a person's blood when the ventricles of the heart contract and blood moves out of the heart. The diastolic pressure measures the pressure in the heart when the heart relaxes. Doctors use a stethoscope to measure a patient's heart rate and a sphygmomanometer to measure a patient's blood pressure. Sphygmomanometers measure a person's blood pressure by squeezing a person's arm and listening to the heart beat when the pressure is released. You can also use your thumb to read your pulse from your carotid or radial artery; however, it is not a reliable reading because your thumb has a pulse of it's own. When using a sphygmomanometer to take blood pressure, be sure that it is free of air and double check that the valve is tightly shut. Put the band around the person's upper arm and place a stethoscope underneath. Using the pump, add pressure to the sphygmomanometer to add pressure until the meter reads 150 mmHg. Once you've reached this pressure on the valve, open the valve to slowly release air. The recorder should listen for the heartbeat and mark the pressure at which they hear the first heartbeat. Likewise, they should record the pressure when they can no longer hear a heartbeat. The number recorded when the heartbeat is first heard is the systolic blood pressure and the number recorded when the heartbeat is no longer heard is the diastolic blood pressure. For this lab, I partnered with Michelle Koo and we measured each other's blood pressure and heart rate using the method described above. The results we got are recorded in the table below.
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