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1. We are palpating arterial pulsations. Can you feel a venous pulse? Why or why

ID: 3510491 • Letter: 1

Question

1. We are palpating arterial pulsations. Can you feel a venous pulse? Why or why not? 2. How do the radial and dorsalis pedis pulses compare in strength and timing? Explain. 3. Comparing the dorsalis pedis pulses, were the two sides equal in strength and timing? What would it mean if one side was weak or absent? 1. We are palpating arterial pulsations. Can you feel a venous pulse? Why or why not? 2. How do the radial and dorsalis pedis pulses compare in strength and timing? Explain. 3. Comparing the dorsalis pedis pulses, were the two sides equal in strength and timing? What would it mean if one side was weak or absent? 2. How do the radial and dorsalis pedis pulses compare in strength and timing? Explain. 3. Comparing the dorsalis pedis pulses, were the two sides equal in strength and timing? What would it mean if one side was weak or absent?

Explanation / Answer

1. Pulse palpation is an important part of the vascular physical examination. It is essential in the evaluation of patients with peripheral artery disease. But pulse examination should not be limited to peripheral artery disease. It offers much information for other vascular disease as well.
Pulse palpation technique is actually two matters. The first, is general palpation principles. The second are tips for palpating specific pulses.
The physical principles behind the venous pulsations is pulsation occurred because of the rise in intraocular pressure in the eye with the pulse pressure.The pulsations are in fact caused by variation in the pressure gradient along the retinal vein as it traverses the lamina cribrosa. The pressure gradient varies because of the difference in the pulse pressure between the intraocular space and the cerebrospinal fluid. The importance of this is that as the intracranial pressure rises the intracranial pulse pressure rises to equal the intraocular pulse pressure and the spontaneous venous pulsations cease. Thus it is shown that cessation of the spontaneous venous pulsation is a sensitive marker of raised intracranial pressure.

2.  The radial pulse is commonly measured using three fingers. This has a reason: the finger closest to the heart is used to occlude the pulse pressure, the middle finger is used get a crude estimate of the blood pressure, and the finger most distal to the heart (usually the ring finger) is used to nullify the effect of the ulnar pulse as the two arteries are connected via the palmar arches (superficial and deep).
The dorsalis pedis artery (dorsal artery of foot), is a blood vessel of the lower limb that carries oxygenated blood to the dorsal surface of the foot. It arises at the anterior aspect of the ankle joint and is a continuation of the anterior tibial artery. It terminates at the proximal part of the first intermetatarsal space, where it divides into two branches, the first dorsal metatarsal artery and the deep plantar artery. The dorsalis pedis communicates with the plantar blood supply of the foot through the deep plantar artery.