THE EFFECTS ON HEART RATE, HEART RHYTHM, AND ARTERIAL BLOOD PRESSURE OF THREE PROCEDURES USED BY ACUTE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION PATIENTS TO MOVE TO THE HEAD OF THE BED.
Contributors: University of Pennsylvania. School of Nursing.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 143
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Many authors have presumed that acute myocardial infarction (MI) patients risk life threatening cardiovascular responses to shifting position in bed. The cardiovascular response to a shift, usually associated with a Valsalva maneuver, is thought to affect the patients' systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, and heart rhythm. To prevent the harmful effects, the authors recommend warning patients not to move without assistance or not to move without exhaling. Such measures would presumably prevent the Valsalva Maneuver.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects on systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate and heart rhythm when acute MI patients move to the head of the bed independently, move with the assistance of two nurses, and exhale while moving with the assistance of two nurses. The effects of the three procedures on the four dependent variables were monitored during and after the shift and at three minutes after the shift. The changes from patients' baselines were analyzed using analysis of variance with repeated measures technique. One analysis, systolic blood pressure at three minutes after the shift, yielded significant results. When the mean was adjusted by using the absolute value of the data, the results were statistically insignificant. There were no significant differences in any other variable at any time measured. Even the most extreme changes were not critical when related to the patient's baseline, nor did they occur with any pattern or relationship to one procedure more often than another. The results of the analysis of variance of the double product, systolic blood pressure multiplied by heart rate, which is used as an index of myocardial oxygen consumption, indicated no significant difference between the three procedures.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-03, Section: B, page: 0702.

Thesis (D.N.SC.)--UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF NURSING, 1987.

School code: 0839.