The pulse is usually felt just inside the wrist below the thumb by placing two or three fingers lightly upon the radial artery. A pulse in the veins is too weak to be felt, although sometimes it is measured by sphygmograph (see below) the tracing obtained is called a phlebogram. It is analogous to the hammering sound heard in steam pipes as the steam is forced into the pipes under pressure. This shock wave is generated by the pounding of the blood as it is ejected from the heart under pressure. What is felt is not the blood pulsing through the arteries (as is commonly supposed) but a shock wave that travels along the walls of the arteries as the heart contracts. Other sites for pulse measurement include the side of the neck (carotid artery), the antecubital fossa (brachial artery), the temple (temporal artery), the anterior side of the hip bone (femoral artery), the back of the knee (popliteal artery), and the instep (dorsalis pedis artery). the beat of the heart as felt through the walls of a peripheral artery, such as that felt in the radial artery at the wrist.
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