Cardiovascular & Respiratory System Flashcards
What is the cardiovascular system comprised of and what is it responsible for?
Heart, blood vessels and blood
Transporting oxygen and nutrients to the body tissues, and removing waste products such as carbon dioxide
Where is the heart positioned and how big is it?
Behind the sternum, left of the centre. Positioned between the right and left lungs
Size of a mans clenched fist
What is the function of the heart?
Muscular pump that pushes oxygen and nutrients around the body to the tissues
What is the name for the thick muscular walls the heart is made up of?
Myocardium
What does the right half of the heart do?
Received blood from the body and pumps it to the lungs
What does the left half of the heart do?
Receives blood from the lungs and pumps it to the body
How many heart chambers are there and what are the names?
Four heart chambers.
Two upper chambers - atria
Two lower chambers- ventricles
What do the atria heart chambers do?
Receive bloody from the veins and pump it down into the ventricles.
Are atria or ventricles smaller?
Atria are smaller and do not require high levels of pressure to do their job
What do the ventricles do?
Pump blood to the arteries
Which ventricle has larger muscular walls?
The left because..
It pumps its contents to the furthest parts of the body, where as the right only has to pump blood to the adjacent lungs.
What does the AV (atrioventricular) do?
Separates the atria and ventricles and prevent the flow of blood back into the atria during ventricular contraction
What does the semilunar valve do?
Prevent the flow of blood back into the right pulmonary valve and left ventricles (aortic valve) during ventricular relaxation
What is the hearts pace maker and what does it do?
SAN (sinoatrial node)
Initiates cardiac muscle contraction
Where is the SAN (hearts pacemaker) located?
In the wall of the right atrium
The myocardium (heart muscle) is stimulated to contract how many beats per minute?
What nervous system is this a part of?
72bpm
Autonomic
What is the optimal blood pressure reading?
120/80mmHg
Systolic and diastolic
What is systolic blood pressure?
The pressure exerted on the artery walls when the cardiac muscle is contracting and pumping blood
What is diastolic blood pressure?
Pressure exerted on the artery walls when the heart is relaxed.
What is a low blood pressure reading
<100/<60
What is a normal blood pressure reading?
<130/<85
What is a high normal - pre hypertension reading?
130-139/85-89
What is a stage 1 hypertension reading?
140-159/90-99
What is a stage 2 hypertension reading?
160-179/100-109
What is a stage 3 hypertension reading?
> 180/>110
What is it called when the blood vessels narrow ?
Vasoconstrict
What is it called when the blood vessels widen?
Vasodilate
Why can the blood vessels narrow and widen? And what can it allow them to do?
Because of the smooth muscle found in their walls.
Allows them to allow more or less blood through, enables them to direct the flow of blood to different tissues depending on where the oxygen and nutrients are required