Cardiovascular Flashcards
(42 cards)
Arteries everywhere except heart
Carry oxygenated blood. Pressure storers
Veins everywhere except heart
Carry deoxygenated blood. Volume storers
Pulmonary artery
Carries deoxygenated blood from the heart to the lungs
pulmonary vein
carries oxygenated blood from the lungs back to the heart
role of vascular system
partition blood from heart to different organs and tissues What does this allow us to do? 1. Transports waste (urea, kidney function) 2. Thremoregulation - controls blood flow to skin 3. Transport hormones 4. Distribute nutrients 5. Move CO2 and O2
arteries vs veins vs capillaries anatomy
Arteries: Contain the thickest layer of elastic and smooth muscle, allowing them to contract and generate the most pressure.
Veins: Contain a thin layer of elastic so when blood goes in, veins give and you don’t get a lot of pushback - volume storers. Also contain one-way valves to prevent backflow. We don’t worry about backflow in the arteries because the pressure is higher.
Capillaries: Just a thin layer of endothelium, maximizing gas exchange.
Anatomy of the heart and blood flow
–Blood enters heart on the right side via superior vena cava (collects blood from the top of body) and inferior vena cava (collects blood from lower part of body)
–Blood fills the right atrium passively. When pressure in right atrium is large enough, it flows through the tricuspid valve into the right ventricle.
–Right ventricle contracts (ventricular systole), and blood flows through the pulmonary valve to the lungs
–Blood is oxygenated in the lungs
–Blood returns to the left side of the heart via the pulmonary veins and collects in the left atrium
–When pressure in the left atrium is greater than pressure in the left ventricle, blood flows down into the left ventricle through the bicuspid valve
–Left ventricle contracts –> bicuspid valve closes and aortic valve opens
–Oxygenated blood flows out of aorta to the rest of the body

Superior vena cava
carries deoxygenated blood from the upper part of the body to the right atrium
inferior vena cava
carries deoxygenated blood from the lower part of the body to the right atrium
pulmonary valve
blood must flow from the right ventricle up through the pulmonary valve to reach the veins
bicuspid valve
separates the left atrium from the left ventricle
Aortic valve
blood flows from the left ventricle up through the aortic valve to the rest of the body
tricuspid valve
separates the right atrium from the right ventricle
Right ventricle vs. left ventricle
The left ventricle is much larger because it needs to generate enough pressure to pump blood out to the whole body, while the right ventricle only needs to pump blood to the lungs.
chordae tendineae
muscles that stabilize the AV valves to help keep them closed and prevent backflow
coronary artery and coronary vein
provide the heart’s own circulation
ventricular systole
ventricular contraction
ventricular diastole
ventricular relaxation
Cardiac output
=Heart Rate x Stroke Volume
= beats/min x mL/beat
=mL/min
What does our closed circulatory system with the heart allow us to do?
- Variable cardiac output - we can couple cardiac output to metabolic rate
- We can partition blood
How do we make the heart contract?
We use electrical signals. Mechanical activity follows electrical activity. We have 2 types of cells for this:
- Conducting fibers
- Contracting fibers
Conducting fibers
specialized muscle cells that conduct electrical activity/information and generate action potentials that drive contractile cells
Contracting fibers
muscle cells that do the contraction of the heart - make up the majority of heart cells
Electrical pathway in the heart
- SA node sets the baseline rhythm and needs no outside impulse
- Spreads to the AV node, where the signal slows to let muscle contraction of the atriums catch up
- Moves through Bundle of His fibers down to the bottom of the heart
- From bottom of heart is carried back up via Purkinje fibers, which triggers contraction of the ventricle
**Contraction of ventricle happens from the bottom up to get all the blood bacvk to the valves