Claudia,  It has been my understanding(limited) that the mean arterial
pressure raises systemically with exercise.  The chemical changes affect the
vessels and the heart. The heart responds by increasing cardiac output(BPM,
SV, conractility), which increases the systolic blood pressure. It is the
arterioles, not the arteries, that respond by changing diameter and shifting
blood flow to different tissues in proportion to needs.

Question:Can the resistance in the legs(arterioles)decrease but still have
an increase in systemic pressure?

Question: Can we correlate arterial pressure with dialated arteriole
pressure?

One other thought,  I have noticed that with treadmill testing, many
patients squeeze the support bars until their knuckles turn white.  This
shows up readily with cardiac stress testing, through EKG changes.  We have
to remind the patient to loosen their grip, so EKG tracings can be read.
They are gripping with an isometric contraction, which requires the most
amount of energy out of any type of contraction.  Would this type of
contraction require more blood flow to the hands?

Thanks for helping me try to understand this.  When they say PVD is the most
underdiagnosed diseases in America, I wonder if its not one of the most
misunderstood diseases as well.  jeremy




>From: "Claudia A. Benge" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: UVM Flownet <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Post exercise ABI's
>Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 21:27:12 -0500
>
>Jeremy, sorry your question was lost in a flood of emails.  During TM
>testing, the arm vessels do not receive a chemical signal to dilate and
>lower resistance..The body is busy answering the lower extemities call for
>more blood by dilating the legs arterial system which lowers pressure
>across the segment.  After years of doing cardiac stress testing, we always
>noticed that the arm pressures frequently elevated but did not drop in
>subjects that had "relatively" normal stress tests, in that they did not
>arrest or go into a bradyarrthymia, etc.  I hope this helps
>
>To unsubscribe or search other topics on UVM Flownet link to:
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