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health advisory Hospital Diseases 2007-11-12 17:57:10

Recently a relative of mine was admitted into the hospital because her blood pressure had plummeted tremendously. Her BP reading was 22/17. She was not yet flatlined but there was no movement in the heart moniter either and the nurses and doctors said she died or would die and there was nothing they could do. However, she did wake up and her bp stabalized, the doctor said it was impossible and he couldnt believe the reading (the reading wasnt a mistake either because he checked), basically he was astonished she lived so were the nurses. I have been looking online but no website that i can find clearly tells you what that bp reading means, they say the minimum for low bp is something like 90/60 or 100/60, i cant find anything about 22/17. Does anyone know what that reading means ? (yes i know it was dangerously low or impossible but i mean anything else? ) thanks in advance

Answer:

I also can't believe that she managed to survive with that very low blood pressure. I also remember when i had like 53/37 blood pressure and i was still talking and walking. But there was a reason why my blood pressure was such.

I am just wondering if your relative has had an arrythmia at that time. I also wonder if she is septic or has an overwhelming infection. There are a lot of reasons you can actually point out but I'm sure there are always cases that you can;t explain.

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The reading can be read as systolic over diastolic.

Systolic pressure is the pressure in the heart when the ventricles are contracting and the blood is getting pushed into the arteries.

Diastolic pressure is the pressure in the heart when the ventricles are relaxing and the heart is refilling with blood.

The pressure is measured in millimeters of mercury, aka mmHg. A pressure of 22/17 means that there is extremely low pressure in the heart during and after contraction meaning that there must be blockages somewhere in the body that are affecting the venus return of blood. The cardiologist will be able to better pinpoint the problem with an angiogram.

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