Best index of afterload?

[Ruban]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hi all,
Can anyone tell me what is the best index of cardiac afterload? I know afterload is the pressure against which the heart has to contract to expel blood. So is the best index diastolic BP? Systolic BP? TPR? MAP? Sort of confused on this one 😕

Thanks!

 

[Idiopathic]

Diastolic BP is the best measure of afterload, and I suppose TPR is the most important component of that, on a minute-to-minute basis.

 

[Ramoray]

Diastolic BP is the best measure of afterload, and I suppose TPR is the most important component of that, on a minute-to-minute basis.

I second as i was thoroughly confused until not to long ago with the differentation of systolic bp v diastolic bp and how one can change but the other doesnt etc, but yes TPR really determines diastolic bp and then when the heart pumps, it is the CO gush of blood that boosts up the systolic bp and TPR is less of a factor but therefore before the heart pumps which is when afterload is important it is diastolic bp det by tpr

 

[HiddenTruth]

but keep in mind that increasing your TPR will increase your AL-- vc will increase the load against which your heart has to pump

 

[HiddenTruth]

I second as i was thoroughly confused until not to long ago with the differentation of systolic bp v diastolic bp and how one can change but the other doesnt etc, but yes TPR really determines diastolic bp and then when the heart pumps, it is the CO gush of blood that boosts up the systolic bp and TPR is less of a factor but therefore before the heart pumps which is when afterload is important it is diastolic bp det by tpr

hey share the wealth--i'm kinda iffy on this subject when it comes to tying in certain things--u wanna elaborate your knowledge on this, ramoray? thanks buddy.

Let me know if i am missing something here. Basically when you VC, or increase TPR (like in hypovolemia), you're decreasing venous return to the heart, and therefore decreasing diastolic BP, and CO. But, on the same token, you increase AL, and make it harder to push the blood out of the heart. So, I guess this just exacerbates the situation to begin with if you're not careful, eh? And, so does sys BP decrease accordingly, because of the decrease ven return?