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Basics

• Summary
• Start Here
• Diagnosis and Tests

Learn More

• Related Issues
• Specifics
• Genetics

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• Videos and Tutorials

Research

• Clinical Trials
• Journal Articles

Resources

• Find an Expert

For You

• Older Adults
• Patient Handouts

Summary

You've probably heard that high blood pressure is a problem. Sometimes blood pressure that is too low can also cause problems.

Blood pressure is the force of your blood pushing against the walls of your arteries. Each time your heart beats, it pumps out blood into the arteries. Your blood pressure is highest when your heart beats, pumping the blood. This is called systolic pressure. When your heart is at rest, between beats, your blood pressure falls. This is the diastolic pressure. Your blood pressure reading uses these two numbers. Usually they're written one above or before the other, such as 120/80. If your blood pressure reading is 90/60 or lower, you have low blood pressure.

Some people have low blood pressure all the time. They have no symptoms and their low readings are normal for them. In other people, blood pressure drops below normal because of a medical condition or certain medicines. Some people may have symptoms of low blood pressure when standing up too quickly. Low blood pressure is a problem only if it causes dizziness, fainting or in extreme cases, shock.

NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Start Here

• Low Blood Pressure (Hypotension) (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish
• Low Blood Pressure (Hypotension) (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)

Diagnosis and Tests

• Arterial Catheterization (American Thoracic Society) - PDF
• Measuring Blood Pressure (National Library of Medicine) Also in Spanish
• Tilt Table Test (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish

Related Issues

• Conditions Related to Parkinson's (Parkinson's Foundation)
• Syncope (Fainting) (American Heart Association)

Specifics

• Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish
• Orthostatic Hypotension (Postural Hypotension) (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish

Genetics

• Orthostatic hypotension: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)

Videos and Tutorials

• Blood pressure (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish

Clinical Trials

• ClinicalTrials.gov: Hypotension (National Institutes of Health)
• ClinicalTrials.gov: Hypotension, Orthostatic (National Institutes of Health)

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

• Article: Midodrine and clinical outcomes in patients on maintenance hemodialysis.
• Article: An explainable machine learning model for early warning of hypertensive and...
• Article: Factors associated with hypotension during the first hour of continuous renal...
• Low Blood Pressure -- see more articles

Find an Expert

• American Heart Association
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Older Adults

• Fainting (Syncope) (AGS Health in Aging Foundation)
• Postprandial Hypotension (Merck & Co., Inc.) Also in Spanish

Patient Handouts

• Low blood pressure (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish