Q: I would like to know how heart rate (pulse) and blood pressure are related (in case of BP / heart patients)? Whenever the pulse rate (at wrist) increases, does that mean that BP is high too? Also whenever the pulse is normal, does that mean that BP is normal too?

A:There is no good correlation between pulse rate and blood pressure in people with good health. Pulse rate increases in situations of acute lowering of BP as a protective phenomenon to increase the cardiac output. In people with high BP there is no substitute to measuring the BP. Pulse rate measurement does not give an indication of the BP.