Hypertension - Medical Animation

This animation may only be used in support of a single legal proceeding and for no other purpose. Read our License Agreement for details. To license this image for other purposes, click here.

Hypertension - Medical Animation

MEDICAL ANIMATION TRANSCRIPT: The cardiac cycle consists of the sequence of events in the heart through one complete heartbeat. The cardiac cycle begins with systole when the ventricles of the heart contract, squeezing the blood out of the heart into the arteries. Diastole completes the cardiac cycle as the ventricles relax and fill with blood. Blood pressure is a measure of the force exerted by pumped blood on the walls of arteries. Blood pressure is higher during systole and lower as the arteries relax during diastole. Normal systolic blood pressure should be below 120, and diastolic pressure below 80. High blood pressure or hypertension is chronic elevated blood pressure. Hypertension is associated with the following risk factors, age, ethnicity, genetic factors, obesity, smoking, excessive salt consumption, and alcohol, sedentary lifestyle, stress, and chronic conditions such as high cholesterol, diabetes, and kidney disease. These factors all contribute to an increased stiffness or resistance in the peripheral arteries throughout the body. This increased resistance causes increased blood pressure the heart must push against. As the heart works harder, its walls thicken, causing the volume of the ventricles to decrease. With each cardiac cycle, the heart ejects less blood. The brain recognizes this and signals to the heart to pump faster, eventually leading to heart failure and damage to other organs such as the brain and the kidneys. Treatments for hypertension include lifestyle changes and drug therapy. Lifestyle changes include losing weight, regular exercise, reducing salt and sugar intake, eating a low-fat high-fiber diet, stopping smoking, limiting alcohol consumption, and stress management. Drug therapy is intended to reduce blood volume or relax blood vessels, both of which decrease blood pressure. Antihypertensive drugs include diuretics, which rid the body of extra water and salt, beta blockers, which block the effects of adrenaline and ease the heart's pumping action, angiotensin receptor blockers or ARB's, which block angiotensin, a protein that causes arteries to narrow, angiotensin converting enzyme or ACE inhibitors, which reduce production of angiotensin, and calcium channel blockers or CCB's, which relax blood vessels letting blood flow more easily and, thereby, lowering blood pressure. ♪ [music] ♪

	YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO REVIEW THESE ITEMS:
Organ Damage Due to Extreme Hypertension (High Blood Pressure) - exh5418h Medical Exhibit Add to my lightbox Find More Like This Medical Condition Including Hypertension and Papilledema - exh5418e Medical Exhibit Add to my lightbox Find More Like This Treatments for Hypertension - exh5041 Medical Exhibit Add to my lightbox Find More Like This Medical Condition Including Hypertension and Papilledema - exh5418d Medical Exhibit Add to my lightbox Find More Like This Treatments for Hypertension (High Blood Pressure) - exhR0018 Medical Exhibit Add to my lightbox Find More Like This Hypertension Model - G35 Anatomical Model Add to my lightbox Find More Like This