The Cardiovascular system

The cardiovascular system is responsible for carrying essential

products to tissue cells such as food, oxygen and other
nutrients. It is also responsible for removing waste products
such as carbon dioxide. There are two cycles that we refer to
when talking about the
cardiovascular system, the
pulmonary and the systemic.
Pulmonary circuit involves the left
atrium and the right ventricle and
links to the lungs. The systemic
circuit involves the left ventricle and
the right atrium and links to the
rest of the body. The respiratory
system is the stage that will take in
oxygen and remove carbon dioxide in
the lungs. As we breathe in we fill
our lungs with oxygen, as we breathe out we get rid of the
carbon dioxide. Oxygen moves from the lungs into the blood by
diffusion. The newly oxygenated blood travels through the
capillaries into the arterioles and then into the artery. The
artery carrying the oxygenated blood links to the left atrium in
the heart. The atrium is at the relaxed stage which is referred
to as atrial diastole. This oxygen rich blood fills up the left
atrium, the only thing stopping this blood moving into the
ventricle is the mitral valve. An increases pressure in the
atrium will cause the mitral valve to open, the atrium will now
contract to remove all the blood and allow the blood through
into the left ventricle once the blood is through the mitral
valve shuts. This means the blood is now increasing the
pressure in the left ventricle. The left ventricle now contains
the oxygenated blood which needs to be pumped around the
rest of the body. The ventricle forces the blood out through
the aortic valve, the blood will then travel through
the aorta. The aorta is the largest artery in the
body, it carries the blood to the rest of the body
and has many arteries branching off it. Blood and
blood vessels transport oxygen to the tissues and
muscles and then removes the carbon dioxide and
other waste products from the muscles and
tissues. Once the oxygen in the blood has been
used up by the muscles and tissues the blood now
need to travel
back to the lungs to collect
more oxygen and remove
the carbon dioxide. The
blood travels through the
vena cava and other veins
and venules back to the
heart. The vena cava links
to the right atrium. There
are two parts to the vena
cava, the superior and the
inferior. The superior
returns blood from the top
half of the body and the
inferior from the bottom half of the body. The deoxygenated
blood will fill up the right atrium and will increase the pressure
until the tricuspid valve is forced open. A contraction to
remove all blood from the atrium occurs and pumps the blood
through to the right ventricle. The right ventricle fills up with
the deoxygenated blood and now must force the blood up
through the pulmonary valve in the pulmonary artery to the
lungs. The carbon dioxide will be removed and the oxygen rich
blood will then start the cycle again. This is a continuous cycle,
we need our body to supply our muscles and tissue cells with
oxygen and remove the carbon dioxide.