A 29-year-old female develops sepsis and, as a consequence, she experiences prof

Question

A 29-year-old female develops sepsis and, as a consequence, she experiences profound vasodilation.

a) What effect does vasodilation have on the afterload? Explain why.

b) What effect does vasodilation have on blood pressure? Explain why. How will her body try to bring her blood pressure back to homeostasis?

Be detailed in your explanation and support your answer with facts from your textbook, research, and articles from scholarly journals. In addition, remember to add references in APA format to your posts to avoid plagiarism.

Explanation / Answer

Answer a. Afteeload is the amount of pressure against which the heart has to pump blood., vasodilatation causes decrease in the pressure and vasoconstriction causes increase in the blood pressure. Thus vasodilatation causes decrease in the afterload and it will be easier to pump blood in vasodilatation.

Answer b. As explained above the vasodilatation causes decrease in blood pressure. Vasodilatation is caused by dilatation of the smooth muscles present in the wall of the blood vessels. This increases blood flow in the blood vessels and decreased resistance to the flow. This causes decrease in blood pressure. This decrease in the blood pressure is sensed by baroreceptors present in the carotid body and aortic body. The body tries to maintain blood pressure to maintain homeostasis. As a result of baroreflex the vasoconstriction occurs and blood pressure is increased.

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