A patient with high blood pressure takes a medication to slow his heart rate, thus lowering his blood pressure. The EMT would recognize this action as impacting the:

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Medication that slows the heart rate will decrease the cardiac output, which is the amount of blood pumped by the heart per minute. This will subsequently lower the patient's blood pressure. Therefore, the correct choice is option D. Options A, B, and C are not directly impacted by medication that slows the heart rate. Preload is the volume of blood in the heart before it contracts, afterload is the pressure the heart has to push against to eject blood from the ventricle, and systemic vascular resistance is the resistance against blood flow in the systemic circulation.

A Patient with High Blood Pressure Takes a Medication to Slow