Vital Signs

An important part of dealing with medical emergencies is to know and understand the vital signs of the patient.

 

Vital Signs— There are four vital signs which are standard in most medical settings:   Body temperature, pulse rate (or heart rate), blood pressure and respiratory rate.    

 

Pulse—Arterial palpations of a heartbeat.   The easiest places to check for a pulse are the carotid artery (neck) and the radial artery (wrist).

Normal pulse for a resting adult is 60-100 beats/minute (BPM).   Pulse below 60 BPM is bradycardia and pulse above 100 is tachycardia.

Pulse can go as low as 40 BPM during sleep and 150-200 BPM during exercise.

Normal pulse for an infant is around 110 BPM.

Normal pulse for a child is approximately 70-110 BPM.

 

 Respiratory Rate—This is the number of breaths a person takes in a minute.

The average breaths per minute are:

Newborns: 44 breaths per minute

Infants: 20-40 breaths per minute

Preschool children: 20-30 breaths per minute

Older children: 16-25 breaths per minute

Adults: 12-20 breaths per minute

Adults during strenuous exercise 35-45 breaths per minute

Athletes' peak 60-70 breaths per minute

 

Blood Pressure—Blood Pressure is the pressure (force per unit area ) exerted by circulating blood on the walls of blood vessels .   For each heartbeat, blood pressure varies between systolic and diastolic pressures. Systolic pressure is peak pressure in the arteries, which occurs near the end of the cardiac cycle when the ventricles are contracting (the heart at work). Diastolic pressure is minimum pressure in the arteries, which occurs near the beginning of the cardiac cycle when the ventricles are filled with blood (the heart at rest).

 

Normal pressure can be stated as 120 over 80, where 120 is the systolic reading and 80 is the diastolic.

 

 

Systolic

Diastolic

Hypotension

< 90

< 60     

Normal

  90 - 119

60 - 79      

Prehypertension

120 - 139

80 - 89  

Stage 1 Hypertension

140 - 159

90 - 99  

Stage 2 Hypertension

≥ 160

≥ 100

 

A person should not drink coffee, smoke cigarettes, or engage in strenuous exercise for 30 minutes before taking his/her blood pressure.   For 5 minutes before the reading, one should sit upright in a chair with one's feet flat on the floor and with limbs uncrossed. The blood pressure cuff should always be against bare skin, as readings taken over a shirt sleeve are less accurate. During the reading, the arm that is used should be relaxed and kept at heart level. You can keep it at the level of the heart by resting it on a table.

You should be able to take blood pressure manually using a stethoscope and a sphygmomanometer which consists of an inflatable cuff, a measuring unit, and an inflation bulb and valve.

You should also be able to use an automatic blood pressure machine.

 

Temperature--Body temperature is the degree of heat of the deep tissues of the human body.

Normal Ranges:

Newborn to three years - 99°F to 100°F

Five years to adult - 97.7°F to 98.6°F

Rectal temperatures are from .5°F to 1°F higher than oral temperatures.

Axillary temperatures are from .5°F to 1°F lower than oral temperatures.