title: Pulsatile diastolic increase and systolic decrease in arterial blood pressure: their mechanism of production and physiological role.
abstract: The diastolic pulsatile increase in arterial blood pressure is shown to occur earlier in the aorta than in other arteries. It is thus not a reflection of the systolic pressure wave, as has been generally assumed, but an independent pressure wave produced by the sequential contraction of the arterial tree. Conversely, a systolic pulsatile decrease in the rate of blood pressure rise is also produced by an active relaxation of the arterial tree. Simultaneously with the pulsatile changes in arterial blood pressure, there are corresponding changes in arterial blood flow. All these cyclic changes are reflex responses to decreasing diastolic and increasing systolic baroreceptor firing rates, respectively. The two reflexes contribute, together with the known compliance of the large arteries and the great arteriolar blood flow resistance, to the steadiness of capillary blood flow throughout the systolic and the much longer-lasting diastolic phases of the cardiac cycle.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Farmacología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico. mandokij@gmail.com
authors.forename: Juan José
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Mandoki
authors.forename: Beatriz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Casa-Tirao
authors.forename: Juan Arcadio
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Molina-Guarneros
authors.forename: Fausto Alejandro
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Jiménez-Orozco
authors.forename: María Juana
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: García-Mondragón
authors.forename: Amelia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maldonado-Espinoza
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D062186:Arterial Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D001158:Arteries / Q000502:physiology*; D017704:Baroreflex / Q000502:physiology*; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000502:physiology; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D011673:Pulsatile Flow / Q000502:physiology*; D013599:Systole / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Baroreceptor reflexes; Steady capillary blood flow