Circulatory system Flashcards
What is the cardiac cycle?
The sequence of events in one heart beat
What are the stages that occur during the cardiac cycle?
Diastole
Atrial systole
Ventricular systole
What happens during diastole?
Atria and ventricles are relaxing
Blood flows into both the atria and ventricles
Atrioventricular valves are open
Equal pressure in the atria and the ventricles
What happens during atrial systole?
Heart beat starts as atria contracts
Right and left atria simultaneously contract
Right and left ventricles fill up
Pressure increases in ventricles and decreases in aorta
When ventricles are full, they contract and cause the atrioventricular valves to close
What happens during ventricular systole?
Ventricles contract increasing pressure
Semilunar valves open
Pressure in aorta and pulmonary artery increase
After blood has been pushed out, the ventricle walls relax
When do aortic pressure and ventricular pressure equal eachother?
When the semilunar valves open and close
When does atrial pressure equal ventricular pressure?
When the atrioventricular valve closes and opens
What materials are transported in the blood
Oxygen and Carbon dioxide
What materials are transported in the plasma
Hormones Heat Excretory products Digestive products Mineral salts Antibodies
Where is metabolic heat produced and transported to in the body?
From the liver to the muscles
Where does the renal artery transport blood to?
The kidneys
How is the diffusion rate sped up in the capillaries?
High surface area to volume ration
Walls are only one cell thick
What is the tip of the heart called?
The apex
The process of a heartbeat
Impulse starts in the sinoatrial node as an electrical impulse
The impulse travels down the atrial walls causing muscle contractions
The impulse is stopped by a fibrous non-conducting layer apart from at the atrioventricular node
There is a slight time delay before the electrical impulse travels from the AVN down the septum through purkyne tissue to the apexn
A wave of contractions occur from the apex upwards along the ventricular walls
How thick are the atrial walls and why?
They are quite thin as they only need to pump the blood to the ventricles
How thick is the right ventricle wall and why?
Relatively thick as they need to pump the blood to the lungs
How thick is the wall of the left ventricle and why?
Extremely thick as it needs to pump blood around the whole body to respiring cells
What does the P wave represent on a electrocardiogram?
Atrial depolarisation
What does the QRS complex represent on a electrocardiogram?
Ventricular depolarisation
What does the T wave represent on a electrocardiogram?
Ventricular repolarisation
What is an electrocardiogram?
a record of the voltage changes which occur during the cardiac cycle
Why is there a short delay between the excitation of the atria and excitation of the ventricles?
Not all the blood has passed into the right ventricle
To allow the atrium to contract fully
So ventricles do not contract too early
What are pressure levels like during diastole?
Low in arteries, artia and ventricles
What are pressure levels like during atrial systole?
Rises in both atria and ventricles
Stays low in arteries