A pulse rate less than 60/min or greater than 100/min, a temperature less than 95 °F or greater than 99.6 °F, and a blood oxygen level of less than 95% defined abnormal levels.
[1] The degree of vital sign abnormalities may also predict the long-term patient health outcomes, return emergency department visits, and frequency of readmission to hospitals, and utilization of healthcare resources.
According to the American Heart Association, a patient is unstable when he presents with v-tach and a pulse, and v-tach is the cause of one or more of the following: Altered mental status. Loss of consciousness. Shock.
Body temperature may be abnormal due to fever (high temperature) or hypothermia (low temperature). A fever is indicated when body temperature rises about one degree or more over the normal temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.
In adults, a breathing rate over 20 breaths per minute is usually considered elevated. A rate over 24 breaths per minute indicates a very serious condition. It may be less serious when the higher rate is because of a psychological condition such as a panic attack.
Vital signs can be influenced by a number of factors. It can vary based on age, time, gender, medication, or a result of the environment.
You may have a condition known as labile hypertension, which refers to blood pressure that fluctuates far more than usual. Everyone's blood pressure rises and falls many times during the course of a single day, sometimes even within minutes.
Although the term “labile hypertension” means blood pressure that fluctuates more than usual, the term actually has no official definition. There's no line that must be crossed — no minimum blood pressure reading or number of spikes — necessary to make the diagnosis.
Temperature, pulse, respira- tion, and blood pressure are usually taken in this order. For proper charting of vital signs in the medical record, it is helpful to remember the T, P, R, BP sequence and record the results in that order. During some office visits, only one of the vital signs may be measured.
Vital signs reflect essential body functions, including your heartbeat, breathing rate, temperature, and blood pressure. Your health care provider may measure, or monitor your vital signs to check your level of physical functioning.
Nursing response to abnormal vital signs is one of the most important levers in patient safety, by providing timely recognition of early clinical deterioration. This occurs through diligent nursing surveillance, involving assessment, interpretation of data, recognition of a problem and meaningful response.
A weak pulse may be caused by: A blood clot in your arm or leg. Diseases of the blood vessels (peripheral arterial disease). Heart disease and heart failure.
Hypertension, also known as high or raised blood pressure, is a condition in which the blood vessels have persistently raised pressure.
A human's vital capacity depends on age, sex, height, mass, and possibly ethnicity. However, the dependence on ethnicity is poorly understood or defined, as it was first established by studying black slaves in the 19th century and may be the result of conflation with environmental factors.
Age, gender, body composition, and ethnicity are factors affecting the different ranges of lung capacity among individuals.
Medicines that are used to treat health problems in older people can affect the vital signs. For example, the medicine digoxin, which is used for heart failure, and blood pressure medicines called beta-blockers may cause the pulse to slow.
They include apnea, eupnea, orthopnea, dyspnea hyperpnea, hyperventilation, hypoventilation, tachypnea, Kussmaul respiration, Cheyne-Stokes respiration, sighing respiration, Biot respiration, apneustic breathing, central neurogenic hyperventilation, and central neurogenic hypoventilation.