B4 - Transport Flashcards
The blood plasma:
What is it? What does it do? What is in it?
The blood plasma is a yellow liquid. The plasms transports all of your blood cells and some other substances around your body. Plasma carries red and white blood cells and platelets.
Waste Carbon Dioxide reproduced by the cells is carried to the lungs.
Urea formed in your liver from the breakdown from excess proteins is carried to your kidneys where it is removed from your blood to form urine.
The small, soluble products of digestion pass into the plasma from your small intestine and are transported to the individual cells.
Red Blood Cells:
What do they do? What do they look like? Describe their structure.
There are more red blood cells than any other type of blood cell in your body - about 5 million in each cubic millimetre of blood.
These cells pick up oxygen from the air in your lungs and carry it to the cells where it is needed.
Red blood cells have adaptations that make them ver efficient at their job.
They are biconcave discs. Being concave (pushed in) on both sides, gives them an increased surface area to volume ratio for diffusion.
They are packed with a red pigment called haemoglobin that binds to oxygen.
White Blood Cells:
What do they do? What do they look like? Describe their structure.
White blood cells are much bigger than red blood cells and there are fewer of them.
They have a nucleus for part of the body’s defence system against harmful microorganisms.
Some white blood cells (lymphocytes) form antibodies against microorganisms.
Some form antitoxins against poisons made by microorganisms.
Yet others (phagocytes) engulf and digest invading bacteria and viruses.
Platelets:
What are they? What are they like? What do they do? Describe their structure.
Platels are small fragments of cells. They have no nucleus. They are important in helping the blood to clot at the site of a wound.
Blood clotting is a series of enzyme controlled reactions that result in converting fibrinogen into fibrin.
This produces a network of protein fibres that capture lots of red blood cells and more platelets to form a jelly like clot that stops you bleeding to death.
The clot dries and hardens to form a scab.
This protects the new skin as it grows and stops bacteria entering the body through the wound.
What are the 3 blood vessels?
- Artery
- Vein
- Capillary
Describe the features/characteristics of an artery.
- Thick walls
- Thick layer of muscle and elastic fibres
- Small lumen
- Carry blood away from the heart
- Bright red oxygenated blood
- Feel as a pulse
- Very dangerous to cut
Describe the features/characteristics of a vein.
- Relatively thin walls
- Often have valves
- Large lumen
Carry blood away from organs
- Low in oxygen
- No pulse
Describe the features/characteristics of a capillary.
- Walls a single cell thick
- Tiny vessel with narrow lumen
- Network of tiny vessels linking arteries and veins
- Enables oxygen and glucose to diffuse easily
- Carbon Dioxide passes easily
What is a Double Circulatory System?
The blood must pass through the heart TWICE to perform one complete circuit of the body.
- Heart -> Lungs -> Heart
- Heart -> Body -> Heart
Name the different parts of a human heart.
Aorta Vena Cava Right Atrium Right Ventricle Triscupid Valve Pulmonary Artery Pulmonary Vein Left Atrium Biscupid Valve Semilunar Valves Left Ventricle
What is a stent? Explain what it does…
A stent is a metal mesh that is placed in the artery. A tiny balloon is inflated to open up the blood vessel and the stent remains in place, holding the blood vessel open.
What are other options (apart from stent) for someone with badly blocked arteries?
Doctors can also carry put bypass surgery, replacing the narrow or blocked coronary arteries with bits of veins from other parts of the body.
What are the advantages of having a mechanical heart valve rather than a biological one?
They last longer, mechanical heart valves last 20-30 years, where as biological heart valves last 10-20 years.
Whatare the disadvantages of having a mechanical heart valve rather than a biological one?
The materials used will cause clots to form in it.
Patients will need to take blood thinning drugs every day for the rest of their lives.
There will be a risk of clotting, heart attack or a stroke.
What is the ‘natural pacemaker’?
A natural pacemaker makes a resting rhythm of a healthy heart which is 70 bpm.
What is an ‘artificial pacemaker’? How does it work? What does it do?
This is an electrical device used to correct irregularities in the heart rate, which is implanted into your chest.
What are some disadvantages of having an artificial heart (consider medical as well as social issues).
Sometimes it is not enough to restore someone’s health.
When the heart fails completely, it needs a donor, which is most likely impossible to get, and it needs a tissue match.
Always a risk of blood clotting.
What are some lf the advantages of having an artificial heart?
It gives a chance for people to live to try and get a transplant.
It could also be used as a replacement when a diseased heart needs rest.
Explain why the left ventricle wall is thicker than the right ventricle wall.
The left ventricles wall carries blood all around the body, where as the right ventricle wall carries blood to the lungs. It also must generate more pressure.
In which order does blood flow through the body starting from the Right Atrium?
Right Atrium
Right Ventricle
Pulmonary Artery
Lungs
Pulmonary Vein
Left Atrium
Left Ventricle
Aorta
Body
