Jugular venous pressure

A man with congestive heart failure and marked jugular venous distention. External jugular vein marked by an arrow; however, JVP is not measured by looking at the external jugular vein even but is instead measured by pulsations of the skin from the internal jugular vein, which is not visible in this image.

The jugular venous pressure (JVP, sometimes referred to as jugular venous pulse) is the indirectly observed pressure over the venous system via visualization of the internal jugular vein. It can be useful in the differentiation of different forms of heart and lung disease. Classically three upward deflections and two downward deflections have been described.

  • The upward deflections are the "a" (atrial contraction), "c" (ventricular contraction and resulting bulging of tricuspid into the right atrium during isovolumetric systole) and "v" (venous filling).
  • The downward deflections of the wave are the "x" descent (the atrium relaxes and the tricuspid valve moves downward) and the "y" descent (filling of ventricle after tricuspid opening).