Manual

42
Evaluating the results
General information about blood pressure
•
B lood pressure is the force with which the bloodstream presses against the arterial walls. Arterial
blood pressure constantly changes in the course of a cardiac cycle.
• B lood pressure is always stated in the form of two values:
– The highest pressure in the cycle is called systolic blood pressure. This arises when the heart
muscle contracts and blood is pumped into the blood vessels.
– The lowest is diastolic blood pressure, which is when the heart muscle has completely
stretched back out and the heart fills with blood.
• F luctuations in blood pressure are normal. Even during repeat measurements, considerable dif-
ferences between the measured values may occur. One-o or irregular measurements therefore
do not provide reliable information about the actual blood pressure. Reliable assessment is only
possible when you perform the measurement regularly under comparable conditions.
Risk indicator
The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined the internationally recognised classification for
the evaluation of measured blood pressure values listed in the table below:
Measured blood
pressure value range
Classification Colour of the risk indicator
Systole
(in mmHg)
Diastole
(in mmHg)
≥ 180 ≥ 110 High blood pressure stage 3 (severe) Red
160 – 179 100 – 109 High blood pressure stage 2 (moderate) Orange
140 – 159 90 – 99 High blood pressure stage 1 (mild) Yellow
130 – 139 85 – 89 High normal Green