Common carotid artery vertebral artery. The common carotid artery is often used in measuring the pulse,{ especially in patients who are in shock and who lack a detectable pulse in the more peripheral arteries of the body. The pulse is taken by palpating the artery just deep to the anterior border of the sternocleidomastoid muscle at the level of the superior border of the thyroid cartilage. Presence of a carotid pulse has been estimated to indicate a systolic blood pressure of more than 40 mmHg, as given by the 50% percentile. Carotidynia is a syndrome marked by soreness of the carotid artery near
Carotid body may involve mitochondrial oxygen sensors and the haem-containing cytochromes that undergo reversible one-electron reduction during oxidative-phosphorylation. Haem reversibly binds O with an affinity similar to that of the carotid body, suggesting that haem containing proteins may have a role in O, potentially this could be one of the complexes involved in oxidative-phosphorylation. This leads to increases in reactive oxygen species and rises in intracellular Ca. However, whether hypoxia leads to an increase or decrease in reactive oxygen species is unknown. The role of reactive oxygen species in hypoxia sensing is also under question. The oxygen dependent enzyme haem-oxidase has also