Diastolic pressure is defined as which of the following?

• A. The maximum pressure felt on contraction of the heart.
• B. The average pressure in the arteries over the cardiac cycle.
• C. The elastic recoil or resting pressure that blood exerts between each contraction.
• D. The lowest pressure in the arteries during relaxation.

Answer: (C)

Diastolic pressure is the arterial pressure during the heart’s relaxation phase, when the ventricles are not contracting. After the heart ejects blood, the elastic walls of the arteries recoil and maintain a baseline pressure, keeping blood flowing to tissues between beats. This combination of relaxation and arterial recoil best captures what diastolic pressure represents. The maximum pressure occurs during contraction (systolic), the average over the cardiac cycle is the mean arterial pressure, and simply calling it the lowest pressure during relaxation doesn’t convey the mechanism by which that pressure is maintained.