The arterial pulse is the abrupt expansion of an artery resulting from the sudden ejection of blood into the aorta and its transmission throughout the arterial system. The impulse that results from left ventricular ejection can be transmitted down the aorta at a velocity 20 times greater than the velocity of the ejected blood bolus. The peak of this arterial pulse is the systolic blood pressure.
Copyright © 1990, Butterworth Publishers, a division of Reed Publishing.