pulse
Sign in to saveIn medicine, pulse is the rhythmic expansion and contraction of an artery in response to the cardiac cycle (heartbeat). The pulse may be felt (palpated) in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the neck (carotid artery), wrist (radial artery or ulnar artery), at the groin (femoral artery), behind the knee (popliteal artery), near the ankle joint (posterior tibial artery), and on foot (dorsalis pedis artery). The pulse is most commonly measured at the wrist or neck for adults and at the brachial artery (inner upper arm between the shoulder and
AI overview
Your pulse is the rhythmic throbbing you feel in your arteries as your heart beats, pumping blood through your body. Doctors and nurses commonly measure it at your wrist or neck because these locations allow easy access to arteries near the skin's surface, making it a quick way to check your heart rate and overall health.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Body process.name
- Pulse
- Body process.image
- Hand-book of physiology (1892) (14742233966).jpg
- Body process.caption
- Diagram of the rise and fall of blood pressure from a pulse
- Body process.organisms
- Animalia*
- Body process.biological system
- Circulatory system
- Body process.action
- Involuntary
- Body process.method
- Heart pumps blood using reciprocating method causing inconstant blood flow throughout the circulatory system that can be recognized. (See Cardiac cycle)
- Body process.frequency
- 60–100 per minute (humans)
- Body process.duration
- 0.6–1 second (humans)
- Body process.footnote
- Animalia with the exception of Porifera, Cnidaria, Ctenophora, Platyhelminthes, Bryozoan, Amphioxus
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
23 sectionsContents
- Physiology
- Characteristics
- Rate
- Rhythm
- Volume
- Hypokinetic pulse
- Hyperkinetic pulse
- Force
- Tension
- Form
- Equality
- Condition of arterial wall
- Radio-femoral delay
- Patterns
- Common palpable sites
- Upper limb
- Lower limb
- Head and neck
- Torso
- History
- See also
- References
- External links
In medicine, pulse is the rhythmic expansion and contraction of an artery in response to the cardiac cycle (heartbeat). The pulse may be felt (palpated) in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the neck (carotid artery), wrist (radial artery or ulnar artery), at the groin (femoral artery), behind the knee (popliteal artery), near the ankle joint (posterior tibial artery), and on foot (dorsalis pedis artery). The pulse is most commonly measured at the wrist or neck for adults and at the brachial artery (inner upper arm between the shoulder and elbow) for infants and very young children. A sphygmograph is an instrument for measuring the pulse.
== Physiology == thumb|Pulse evaluation at the radial artery thumb|Recommended points to evaluate pulse Claudius Galen was perhaps the first physiologist to describe the pulse. The pulse is an expedient tactile method of determination of systolic blood pressure to a trained observer. Diastolic blood pressure is non-palpable and unobservable by tactile methods, occurring between heartbeats.