Okuzeka
Medicine vocabulary · History Taking and Examination

Pulse

Meaning in medicine, with examples

/pʌls/nounCore term

In medicine, pulse means: The regular beat of the heart that you can feel where an artery is close to the skin, such as at the wrist or neck.

In Turkish: nabız

How it is used

Doctors and nurses 'take' or 'check' the pulse and describe its rate, rhythm and strength: 'pulse 88, regular'. Common phrases are radial pulse (wrist), carotid pulse (neck), and a 'thready' (weak) or 'bounding' (strong) pulse.

Example sentences

  1. Her pulse is 110 and irregular, so let's get an ECG.

  2. I'm just going to take your pulse at your wrist.

Common collocations

  • take someone's pulse
  • radial pulse
  • pulse rate
  • irregular pulse
  • weak pulse
  • vital signsThe basic body measurements checked to see how ill a patient is: temperature, pulse, breathing rate and blood pressure, and often oxygen level.
  • tachycardiaA heart rate that is faster than normal, usually over 100 beats per minute in an adult at rest.
  • blood pressureThe force of the blood pushing against the walls of the arteries, measured in millimetres of mercury and given as two numbers, for example 120/80.
  • atrial fibrillationA common heart rhythm problem in which the upper chambers of the heart beat fast and chaotically, giving an irregularly irregular pulse.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: History Taking and Examination

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