noun
: pressure exerted by the blood upon the walls of the blood vessels varying with the muscular efficiency of the heart, the blood volume and viscosity, the age of the individual, and the state of the vascular wall, being usually measured on the radial artery by means of a sphygmomanometer and expressed in millimeters of mercury either as a fraction having as numerator the maximum pressure that follows systole of the left ventricle of the heart and as denominator the minimum pressure that accompanies cardiac diastole
a blood pressure of 120/80
or as a whole number representing the first value only
a blood pressure of 120
tending to increase normally with age and excessively with certain vascular kidney and endocrine disorders and decreasing in hemorrhage, hypothyroidism, and various debilitating diseases — compare diastolic pressure , pulse pressure , systolic pressure ; hypertension , hypotension ; arteriosclerosis