Sunteți pe pagina 1din 14

The Cardiovascular System

Functions
Delivery of needed materials: Blood
transports oxygen from your lungs to your
other body cells. It also transports the
glucose your body cells use to produce
energy.
Functions
Removing waste products: Blood carries
carbon dioxide (a waste product from the
break down of glucose) to the lungs so it
can be exhaled.
Functions
Fighting disease: The cardiovascular
system transports cells that attack disease-
causing organisms.
The cardiovascular system is
composed of:
Heart
Arteries
Capillaries
Veins
The Heart
The heart is a hollow, muscular organ
that pumps blood throughout the
body.

The right side of the heart is completely


separated from the left side by a wall
of tissue called the septum. Each side
has two chambers.
Each upper chamber is
called atrium (plural
atria). Blood enters the
heat through the atria.

Each lower chamber is


called ventricle. Blood
In the right atrium there
leaves the heart
is a group of cells
through the ventricles.
called the pacemaker,
which sends out signals
that make the heart
muscle contract.
How the heart works
1. The cardiac muscle relaxes
allowing blood to flow into
the atria.
2. Then the atria contract,
squeezing blood through the
valves and into the
ventricles.
3. Next the ventricles contract,
closing the valves between
the atria and ventricles and
squeezing blood into the
large blood vessels.
A two loop system
The circulatory system has two loops.
In the first loop, oxygen poor blood
travels from the heart to the lungs,
then back to the heart as oxygen rich
blood.
In the second loop, oxygen rich blood
is pumped from the heart throughout
the body, then back to the heart as
oxygen poor blood.
2. Oxygen poor 4. Oxygen rich
blood enters the blood enters the
heart through the heart through the
right atrium left atrium

3. Oxygen poor 1. Oxygen rich


blood leaves the blood leaves the
heart through the heart through the
right atrium left ventricle
Arteries

When blood leaves the heart it travels


through arteries.
The walls of the arteries are generally
very thick. (3 cell layers: one layer of epithelial cells, one
layer of smooth muscle cells and one layer of connective
tissue cells)

Arteries regulate blood flow, adjusting


the amount of blood sent to different
organs
Capillaries
Blood flow from small arteries enters
the capillaries.
In the capillaries materials are
exchanged between the blood and
the bodys cells.
Capillary walls are only one cell thick.
Veins
After blood moves through the
capillaries, it enters larger blood
vessels, which carry blood back to the
lungs.
The walls of veins are also three cells
thick, with muscle in the middle layer.
However they are much thinner than
arteries.
What is blood pressure
Blood pressure is the force blood exerts
against the walls of the blood vessel.
Blood pressure is measured using a
sphygmomanometer, and is expressed as
millimeters of mercury.
The first number is the pressure while the
ventricles contract and pump blood into the
arteries.
The second number measures blood
pressure while the ventricles relax.

S-ar putea să vă placă și