January 15, 2012
What is the relationship between the atherosclerosis and hypertension?
Category: Arteriosclerosis / Atherosclerosis
Question by satvir saini: What is the relationship between the atherosclerosis and hypertension?
Studies have shown that atherosclerosis can lead to hypertension. What is the relationship between the two
Best answer:
Answer by SWOLL68
Atherosclerosis is the hardening or thickening of the blood vessel walls. The maintenance of blood pressure is dependent on the distensibility of vessels. So if a vessel can’t distend/widen itself to accomodate more blood, you have increased pressures inside of that vessel, leading to hypertension.
Ultimately, atherosclerosis leads to hypertension.
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One Response to “What is the relationship between the atherosclerosis and hypertension?”
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January 15th, 2012 at 7:50 am
blood flow is related by the following Darcy’s law. (if you are an physicist/engineer, it is pretty much the same as ohm’s law
q=p/r
flow is q, p is pressure, r is resistance
in atherosclerosis, there are hard plaques that form inside the vessel, making them very stiff and harder to stretch, so the resistance(the ‘r’) will increase. bcos they are indirectly proportional, the flow will decrease;pressure needed to generate the same amount of flow will have to INCREASE in order to maintain the SAME flow
eventually this compensatory mechanism can wear our and lead to main other condtions like heart attack, stroke, kidney problems, eye problems, diabetes…