BLOOD PRESSURE Blood pressure is the force the blood exerts against the walls of the blood vessels. Filtration in capillaries depends upon blood pressure; filtration brings nutri- ents to tissues, and as you will see in Chapter 18, is the first step in the formation of urine. Blood pressure is one of the “ital signs” often measured, and indeed a normal blood pressure is essential to life. ‘The pumping of the ventricles creates blood pres- sure, which is measured in mmHg (millimeters of mercury). When a systemic blood pressure reading is taken, two numbers are obtained: systolic and dias- tolic, as in 110/70 mmHg. Systolic pressure is always the higher of the two and represents the blood pres- sure when the left ventricle is contracting. The lower number is the diastolic pressure, when the left ventri- cle is relaxed and does not exert force. Diastolic pres- sure is maintained by the arteries and arterioles and is discussed in a later section. Systemic blood pressure is highest in the aorta, which receives all of the blood pumped by the left ventride. As blood travels farther away from the heart, blood pressure decreases (see Fig, 13-9). The brachial artery is most often used to take a blood pressure read- ing; here a normal systolic range is 90 to 120 mmHg, and a normal diastolic range is 60 to 80 mmlTg. In the arterioles, blood pressure decreases further, and sys- tolic and diastolic pressures merge into one pressure. ‘At the arterial end of capillary networks, blood pres- sure is about 30 to 35 mmllg, decreasing to 12 «0 15 mmHg at the venous end of capillaries. ‘This is high enough to permit filtration but low enough to prevent rupture of the capillaries. As blood flows through veins, the pressure decreases further, and in the caval veins, blood pressure approaches zero as blood enters the right atrium. ‘The upper limit of the normal blood pressure range is now 120/80 mmHg. The levels of 125 to 139/85 to 89 mmHg, once considered high-normal, are now called “prehypertension,” that is, with the potential to become even higher. A systemic blood pressure con- sistently higher than the normal range is called hyper- tension (see also Box 13-4: Hypertension). A lower than normal blood pressure is called hypotension. ‘The regulation of systemic blood pressure is discussed in a later section. Pulmonary blood pressure is created by the right ventricle, which has relatively thin walls and thus exerts about one-sixth the force of the left ventricle. The result is that pulmonary arterial pressure is always low: 20 to 25/8 to 10 mmHg, and in pulmonary capillaries is lower still. This is important to prevent filtration in pulmonary capillaries, which in turn prevents tissue fluid from accumulating in the alveoli of the lungs.