The heart pumps in discrete beats, yet blood reaches the capillaries in a nearly steady stream, because elastic arterial walls store the surge and give it back during diastole. The pressure wave traces exactly that rhythm: the systolic peak, the dicrotic notch as the aortic valve shuts, then the diastolic trough. Atherosclerosis narrows the lumen to under half while red cells squeeze past the plaque; varicose veins leave the one-way valves leaking, letting blood fall back.
The heart pumps in discrete beats, yet blood reaches the capillaries in a nearly steady stream, because elastic arterial walls store the surge and give it back during diastole. The pressure wave traces exactly that rhythm: the systolic peak, the dicrotic notch as the aortic valve shuts, then the diastolic trough. Atherosclerosis narrows the lumen to under half while red cells squeeze past the plaque; varicose veins leave the one-way valves leaking, letting blood fall back.
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