Jack Graham - Vital Signs Vocabulary

Afebrile - Not feverish

Apical - Relating to an apex

Apical pulse - Pulse point on your chest at the bottom tip of your heart

Apnea - Temporary suspension of breathing, especially during sleep

Arrhythmia - Irregular heartbeat

Axilla - The space below the shoulder through which vessels and nerves enter and leave the upper arm

Auscultation - Listening to the heart or the lungs

Blood pressure - The pressure of the blood in the circulatory system

Bradycardia - Type of abnormal heart rate. Occurs when the heart beats less than 60 bpm

Bradypnea - Breathing more slowly than normal

Capillary refill - Method for detecting blood flow that can lead to shock.

Cardiac arrest - When the heart stops beating suddenly

Carotid pulse - Felt on either side of the neck just below the angle of the jaw

Constrict - The narrowing of blood cells

Cyanosis - A bluish color to the skin

Diastolic blood pressure - Measures the pressure in your arteries when your heart rests between beats

Dilate - To widen or enlarge an opening or hollow structure beyond its usual size

Dyspnea - Difficulty breathing

Fever - Abnormally high body temperature, usually accompanied by shivering

Febrile - Including or caused by fever

Height - The measurement from base to top or from head to foot

Homeostasis - The tendency toward a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially as maintained by physiological processes

Hypertension - High blood pressure

Hypotension - Low blood pressure

Hypothermia - The condition of having an abnormally low body temperature, typically one that is dangerously low

Hyperthermia - The condition of having a body temperature greatly above normal

Normotensive - Having a normal blood pressure

Orthopnea - The sensation of breathlessness in the recumbent position, relieved by sitting or standing

Cheyne-Stokes - Specific form of periodic breathing characterized by a pattern of respiration between central apneas or central hypopneas

Palpation - Pressing on the surface of the body

Percussion - Tapping body parts

Pulse - The number of times the heart beats within a certain time period

Pulse deficit - The difference between the apical and peripheral pulses

Pulse pressure - The difference between the upper and lower numbers of your blood pressure

Radial pulse - Pulse of the radial artery (felt in the wrist)

Rate - The speed or frequency with which an event or circumstance occurs per unit of time, population or other standard of comparision

Rales - Small clicking, bubbling or rattling sounds in the lungs

Respiration - Breathing primarily to take in oxygen and deliver it through pulmonary capillaries to the blood

Rhythm - Measured time or movement; regularity of occurrence of action or function

Sign - Something found during a physical exam that shows a person that might have a condition or disease

Sphygmomanometer - An instrument for measuring blood pressure

Stethoscope - Medical instrument for listening to the action of someone’s heart or breathing

Tachycardia - Heart rate that is faster than normal

Tachypnea - Rapid breating

Tympanic thermometer - Measure the temperature inside the ear canal

Rhonchi - Large airway sounds

Wheeze - High-pitched whistling sound made while breathing