You are clearly in your first semester of studies. The narrowing of the vessels or with more gunk stunk in the vessels means the pressure going through them has to increase. Furthermore, if it’s bad enough the muscles won’t get enough blood, the heart may detect it, and pump harder further increasing the blood pressure.
Afterload is a fancy term for how hard the heart pumps blood out of the ventricles (into the body). The heart works together with the body , able to detect if there are perfusion problems. As a compensatory mechanism, with prolonged vasoconstriction of veins , the heart compensated by increasing afterload. - Max , RN BSN
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
Afterload is a fancy term for how hard the heart pumps blood out of the ventricles (into the body). The heart works together with the body , able to detect if there are perfusion problems. As a compensatory mechanism, with prolonged vasoconstriction of veins , the heart compensated by increasing afterload. - Max , RN BSN
The way I was thinking about the afterload is the pressure the ventricles must generate to exceed the arterial pressure and force the semilunar valves open (since the whole cardiac cycle is driven by pressure). So anything that increases blood pressure like vessel diameter will increase afterload (bc ventricles need to generate even more pressure to exceed it). Is this not right?
The arteriosclerosis causes a Bernoulli's principle effect across the system. Kinetic energy increases and Potential energy decreases. The ventricles generate more force across the muscle contraction, but the blood pressure is elevated by the "stenosis" of the entire system. The increase in pressure is almost purely systolic and the compensation occurs to bring perfusion to the end organs.
Afterload is a fancy term for how hard the heart pumps blood out of the ventricles (into the body). The heart works together with the body , able to detect if there are perfusion problems. As a compensatory mechanism, with prolonged vasoconstriction of veins , the heart compensated by increasing afterload. - Max , RN BSN
The way I was thinking about the afterload is the pressure the ventricles must generate to exceed the arterial pressure and force the semilunar valves open (since the whole cardiac cycle is driven by pressure). So anything that increases blood pressure like vessel diameter will increase afterload (bc ventricles need to generate even more pressure to exceed it). Is this not right?
There is no limit to your intellectual pretensions. But as has been pointed out above, you are a beginner in this subject - and in most things.
The cardiac cycle is driven by the electrical activity of the heart. Pressure will always exist if the semilunar valves can close and open properly and if there isn’t a some kind of huge burst in a major artery or major vein into/out of heart. The heart can adapt to both pump harder and contract faster if required, such as with massive trauma and blood loss, severe sepsis, exercise, cold, shock, and other phenomenon.
The arteriosclerosis causes a Bernoulli's principle effect across the system. Kinetic energy increases and Potential energy decreases. The ventricles generate more force across the muscle contraction, but the blood pressure is elevated by the "stenosis" of the entire system. The increase in pressure is almost purely systolic and the compensation occurs to bring perfusion to the end organs.
The way I was thinking about the afterload is the pressure the ventricles must generate to exceed the arterial pressure and force the semilunar valves open (since the whole cardiac cycle is driven by pressure). So anything that increases blood pressure like vessel diameter will increase afterload (bc ventricles need to generate even more pressure to exceed it). Is this not right?
There is no limit to your intellectual pretensions. But as has been pointed out above, you are a beginner in this subject - and in most things.
^ Sez the (1) founder of the Armstronglivs School of American Studies from a Great Distance and the (2) self-appointed laureate of unsubstantiated doping detection.
The cardiac cycle is driven by the electrical activity of the heart. Pressure will always exist if the semilunar valves can close and open properly and if there isn’t a some kind of huge burst in a major artery or major vein into/out of heart. The heart can adapt to both pump harder and contract faster if required, such as with massive trauma and blood loss, severe sepsis, exercise, cold, shock, and other phenomenon.
No. Cardiac cycle is the mechanical events of the heart driven by pressure changes in the chambers, which controls valve opening and closing. I may be dumb, but this i know.
There is no limit to your intellectual pretensions. But as has been pointed out above, you are a beginner in this subject - and in most things.
^ Sez the (1) founder of the Armstronglivs School of American Studies from a Great Distance and the (2) self-appointed laureate of unsubstantiated doping detection.
I'm actually neither. But that's just the impression you get because after 70 years I obviously know more than you do.
The cardiac cycle is driven by the electrical activity of the heart. Pressure will always exist if the semilunar valves can close and open properly and if there isn’t a some kind of huge burst in a major artery or major vein into/out of heart. The heart can adapt to both pump harder and contract faster if required, such as with massive trauma and blood loss, severe sepsis, exercise, cold, shock, and other phenomenon.
No. Cardiac cycle is the mechanical events of the heart driven by pressure changes in the chambers, which controls valve opening and closing. I may be dumb, but this i know.
And what drives these mechanical events? the muscles contract by electrical activity which initiates and progresses the cardiac cycle. Ever see a heart transplant ? The heart can still be beating as long as there is fluid to pump in and out, because the electrical impulses initiates and progress the heart. The pressure is affected by many factors. For example in massive internal trauma there is blood loss, so the pressure is lower. The heart detects this and starts beating both harder and faster. In sepsis, the pressure also decreases (because the vessels expand to allow for passage of white blood cells) and the heart increases its rate to compensate. Pressure is influenced by various external factors.
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
The cardiac cycle is driven by the electrical activity of the heart. Pressure will always exist if the semilunar valves can close and open properly and if there isn’t a some kind of huge burst in a major artery or major vein into/out of heart. The heart can adapt to both pump harder and contract faster if required, such as with massive trauma and blood loss, severe sepsis, exercise, cold, shock, and other phenomenon.
No. Cardiac cycle is the mechanical events of the heart driven by pressure changes in the chambers, which controls valve opening and closing. I may be dumb, but this i know.
Blood pressure is a systemic measurement. Calcification is something that happens in parts of arteries, not necessarily in all arteries.
But for the purpose of this discussion, I will guess you are referring to the coronary arteries. If those are narrowed, your heart has to work a lot harder due to the increased pressures caused by the narrowing. Coronary arteries supply the heart muscles. So you can imagine why any narrowing of them would be a big deal. Heart attacks being a major potential end point...
As far as vasoconstriction goes and increasing the afterload, if a higher resistance reduces the amount of blood being pumped out of the heart, then you have a lower ejection fraction. So more blood remains in the left ventricle after each contraction. The heart adapts by enlarging to a point(cardiac hypertrophy), but overtime eventually the stroke volume will not be able to compensate for the demands, leading to potential heart failure and other nasty issues.