Overview
- Editors:
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Michel E. Safar
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Broussais-Hôtel Dieu, Paris, France
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Michael F. O’Rourke
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University of New South Wales, St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, Australia
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Table of contents (15 chapters)
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Front Matter
Pages i-viii
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- Michel E. Safar, Michael F. O’Rourke
Pages 1-3
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- Ricky D. Latham, David M. Slife
Pages 39-53
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- Colin L. Berry, Jorge A. Sosa-Melgarejo
Pages 55-72
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- Marie Christine Mourlon-Le Grand, Bernard I. Lévy
Pages 73-87
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- Jean-Baptiste Michel, Jean-François Arnal
Pages 89-105
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- René Gourgon, Alain Cohen-Solal
Pages 155-179
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- Gérard M. London, Michel E. Safar
Pages 181-194
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- Athanase Benetos, Michel E. Safar
Pages 195-207
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- Gerard M. London, Bernard I. Lévy
Pages 209-219
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- Gérard M. London, Toshio Yaginuma
Pages 221-237
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Back Matter
Pages 239-240
About this book
MICHEL E. SAFAR and MICHAEL F. O'ROURKE One of the principal problems of hypertension is the precise definition of blood pressure as a cardiovascular risk factor. Clinicians indicate peak systolic pressure and end diastolic pressure in the brachial artery as the principal criteria for blood pressure measurement. Consequently, these values are as indicators for clinical management and therapeutic adjustment. This used methodology, based on indirect blood pressure measurements at the site of the brachial artery relates only to the highest and lowest pressure in that vessel, and does not give any information of the blood pressure curve itself; this carries more information than peak systolic pressure and end diastolic pressure. As a first step in better analysis of the blood pressure curve, research workers in experimental hypertension defined in addition to peak systolic pressure and end diastolic, another blood pressure value, mean arterial pressure, i. e. the average pressure throughout the cardiac cycle, and about which pressure fluctuates. This is the pressure recorded by Hales [1] and by Poiseuille [2] in their pioneering studies. By application of Poiseuille's Law, this definition of mean arterial pressure led to the concept that increased mean arterial pressure (and therefore hypertension) was related, at any given value of cardiac output, to an increase in vascular resistance, i. e. to a reduc tion in the caliber of the small arteries.
Editors and Affiliations
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Broussais-Hôtel Dieu, Paris, France
Michel E. Safar
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University of New South Wales, St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, Australia
Michael F. O’Rourke
