Topics
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The Heart
It’s at this point we should turn our attention to the thing that enables perfusion and fundamentally keeps us alive minute-to-minute. Pre-birth The circulatory system we currently possess is very different to what we had as a developing fetus (notwithstanding congenital cardiac conditions). In utero, oxygen is derived from the placenta (as our lungs are…
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Blood Pressure
What’s in a blood pressure reading? What do the numbers actually mean? Blood pressure readings in clinical practice are normally derived from the large arteries such as brachial (usually used in non-invasive BP monitoring) or radial and femoral (commonly used in arterial line monitoring). Systolic and diastolic blood pressure The systolic blood pressure (SBP) represents the…
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Cardiovascular Introduction
Why do we care about a patient’s blood pressure? Why do we get worried when the number on the monitor drops? Blood pressure is really a proxy for the thing we actually care about; perfusion. The tissues require perfusion to supply good stuff (such as oxygen, nutrients, immune factors, hormones, clotting factors etc) and get rid of…