Low blood pressure with values under 105/60 mm Hg.
Low blood pressure, or a fall in blood pressure below the normal range.
Abnormally low blood pressure that can cause lightheadedness, weakness, blurred vision, fainting, and unconsciousness.
Reduced tone of the skeletal muscles.
Hypotonia involves decreased tension of the fine muscles, making upright postures difficult to hold and independent movement difficult to produce. It is also referred to as decreased muscle tone, flaccidity, or floppiness. Hypotonia is the opposite of hypertonia. Hypotonia is commonly associated with multiple genetic, metabolic, cerebral, spinal, or muscular disorders including muscular dystrophy, myasthenic gravis, Down syndrome, meningitis, and encephalitis. Hypotonia can also be caused by injury or trauma. Although identification of the presence of hypotonia is not difficult, determination of the actual cause of the symptom is more problematic.
Abnormal limpness of the muscles, when the muscles do not have the “tension” they normally have even in relaxation. Some babies with hypotonia have what is called the floppy infant syndrome, which is especially common among premature infants, who develop normal muscle tension as they mature. But hypotonia is also associated with several other kinds of health disorders, such as heart problems; malnutrition or nutritional deficiencies and related diseases such as rickets and scurvy; motor neuron diseases; muscular dystrophy and related juvenile spinal muscular atrophies, including Werdnig-Hoffmann disease and Wohlfart-Kugelberg-Welander disease, and a variety of other disorders such as severe sleep apnea, cerebral palsy, and Down’s syndrome.
Decreased muscle tone, especially in infants and usually indicating the presence of genetic, muscle, or central nervous system disorders. Infants who are hypotonic feel floppy when held, and when at rest, they lie with their limbs loosely extended, unlike infants with normal muscle tone, who tend to flex their elbows and knees. Hypotonic infants often display poor or no control of their heads. Hypotonia can be a symptom of Down syndrome, myasthenia gravis, Prader-Willi syndrome, Werdnig-Hoffmann disease, Marfan syndrome, muscular dystrophy, Tay-Sachs disease, trisomy 13 syndrome, and congenital hypothyroidism.