ABSTRACT
Measuring and recording blood pressure is an important task that is often delegated to the healthcare assistant. Arteries are the blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart. Every time the heart contracts, it squeezes blood through the arteries and the blood exerts a force on the artery walls. This force is the blood pressure. The systolic pressure measures the force exerted by the blood on the artery walls at the peak of the left ventricular contraction. The diastolic pressure measures the force exerted on the artery walls when the heart is relaxed. There are two types of hypertension: essential hypertension, where the cause is not known; and secondary hypertension, which may be due to medication, kidney disease or hormone problems. Hypertension can only be diagnosed after several readings at different times of the day when the patient is relaxed.
