Bethany Sebald SPE 325 Lab 2 Date: 2/11/16 Lab Section 2 Lab Partner: Josh Washington Laboratory Results: Cuff Systolic Diastolic Pulse Pressure BP Class location/Hand Pressure Pressure (mmHg) position (mmHg) (mmHg) Upper Left Arm/Hand Low, 104 78 1.438 Normal Ex. 1 Upper Left Arm/Hand Low, 117 54 1.903 Hypotensive Ex. 2 Upper Right Hypertensive 113 101 0.413 Arm/Hand Low Stage 2 Lower Right Hypertensive 107 91 0.419 Arm/Hand Low Stage 1 Left Arm/Left 99 78 1.652 Normal Hand Low Left Arm/Right 100 78 1.542 Normal Hand High Left Arm/Left 42 29 0.091 Hypotensive Hand High Laboratory Notes: Blood pressure after exercise: Speed: 5.5 mph Time: 2 min Blood pressure taken from left arm Systolic: 121 Diastolic: 101 Pulse pressure: .948 Laboratory Questions: Exercise 2 1. Are the systolic and diastolic blood pressures from Exercises 1 and 2 identical? What are the possible sources of variation?

The systolic and diastolic pressure from Exercises 1 and 2 are similar but not identical. A possible source of variation could be inaccurate analyzing of data, but a change in the positioning of the blood pressure cuff or heart rate monitor could also have an effect. Different results could also occur if the patient moved positions at all between exercises. 2. Since the pressures are determined using changes in the pulse amplitude, would slowing the rate at which pressure is released from the cuff make your readings more accurate? • Yes because if the cuff is released too quickly, blood may rush into the arm too quickly and an accurate systolic reading couldn’t be achieved. Exercise 3 1. Are the values the same as those obtained for the left arm? Explain any differences. • The values are similar to that of the readings from the left arm for both Exercises 1 and 2. Any differences could result from inaccurate analyzing of data, a variation in the positioning of the blood pressure cuff or heart rate monitor, or a change in the speed of release of pressure in the blood pressure cuff. Exercise 4 1. Are the values from the forearm the same as those obtained with the cuff on the upper arm? Explain any variations that you see. • From our data, the blood pressure obtained from the forearm was similar to the blood pressure obtained from the upper arm of both the right and left arms. We may have analyzed the data incorrectly, because it would make sense that the blood pressure in the forearm would be less than that of the upper arm because it is farther away from the heart and blood has to travel further to reach the forearm. Exercise 5 1. What is the effect of raising each hand on the blood pressure in the left arm? Explain your results. • Raising the right arm had little effect on the blood pressure in the left arm, but raising the left arm resulted in an extremely low blood pressure in that arm. This is because gravity was working against the natural flow of blood and much less blood could be pumped into the arm by the heart if it continued to do the same amount of work. Laboratory Reflections: In this lab, we took blood pressure and pulse from various parts of both arms and •

from several different positions. From our results, we wanted to see if blood pressure is consistent throughout the entire body or if it is different depending on the part of the body and the position of the body part.



From our results, it appears that systolic blood pressure is much more consistent

than diastolic blood pressure. The majority of the variation that affected the BP came from the diastolic blood pressure. The most drastic change in blood pressure occurred when we measured the blood pressure of an elevated arm. Both the systolic and diastolic pressure decreased dramatically in this experiment. Finally, we measured blood pressure after light exercise. In this experiment there was a slight increase in systolic pressure, but diastolic pressure increased dramatically. It would be interesting to do this same lab again and see if the results are consistent every time they are measured.