Cardiovascular system Flashcards
What does myogenic mean?
The ability of the heart to generate its own electrical impulses.
What is the Sinoatrial Node?
A small mass of cardiac tissue found in the wall of the right atrium that generates the heart beat, by sending out electrical impulses.
What is the Atrioventricular Node?
This node relays the impulse between the upper and lower chambers of the heart.
It delays the impulse here for 0.1s to enable the atria to fully contract before ventricular systole begins.
What is the Bundle of His?
A collection of heart muscle cells that transmit electrical impulses from the AV node via the bundle branches to the ventricles.
What are the Purkinje fibres?
Muscle fibres that conduct impulses in the walls of the ventricles.
What is systole?
The heart’s contraction phase where blood is forced out the chambers.
What is diastole?
The heart’s relaxation phase where the chambers fill with blood.
What is cardiac output?
The volume of blood pumped out of the ventricles per minute.
What is heart rate?
The number of times the heart beats per minute.
On average it’s 72bpm.
What is stroke volume?
The volume of blood pumped out of the ventricles per contraction.
On average, 70ml at rest.
What is the sympathetic nervous system?
A part of the autonomous nervous system that increases heart rate.
What is the parasympathetic nervous system?
A part of the autonomic nervous system that decreases heart rate.
What is cardiac hypertrophy?
The thickening of the muscular wall of the heart so it becomes bigger and stronger, it can also mean a larger ventricular cavity.
What is bradycardia?
A decrease in resting heart rate below 60bpm.
What is the medulla oblongata?
The part of the brain that regulates processes that keep us alive such as breathing and heart rate.
What is myocardium?
The muscular wall of the heart.
What is the septum?
The thick muscular wall that separates the left and right side of the heart.
What are chemoreceptors?
Tiny structures in the carotid arteries and aortic arch that detect changes in blood acidity caused by an increase or decrease in carbon dioxide concentration.
What are baroreceptors?
Special sensors in tissues in the aortic arch, carotid sinus, heart and pulmonary vessels that respond to changes in blood pressure to either increase or decrease heart rate.
What are proprioceptors?
Sensory nerve endings in the muscles, tendons and joints that detect changes in muscle movement.
What is adrenaline?
A stress hormone released by the sympathetic nerves and cardiac nerve during exercise.
What does adrenaline do?
It increases heart rate by stimulating the Sinoatrial node.
What is venous return?
The return of blood to the right side of the heart via the vena cava.
What is ejection fraction?
The percentage of blood pumped out of the left ventricle per beat.
What is blood pressure?
The force exerted by the blood against the blood vessel wall.
Blood flow x resistance.
What is systolic pressure?
The pressure in the arteries when the ventricles are contracting.
What is diastolic pressure?
The pressure in the arteries when the ventricles are relaxing.
(Resistance to blood flow)
Why are the atria and ventricles different sizes?
The atria are smaller as they only push the blood down into the ventricles.
This requires little force so the walls are thinner.
The ventricles have thick muscular walls as they need to contract with force to push the blood out of the heart.
Why is the left side of the heart bigger than the right?
It needs to pump blood all around the body whereas the right side pumps blood to lungs, which are in close proximity.
What are the valves of the heart?
The tricuspid valve is located between the right atrium and the right ventricle.
The bicuspid valve is between the left atrium and left ventricle.
The semi-lunar valves are found between the right and left ventricles and the pulmonary artery and aorta.
What are valves?
They regulate blood flow by ensuring it moves in only one direction.
They open to allow blood through and then close to prevent backflow.
How does the cardiac conduction system work?
The SA node initiates the electrical impulse.
The signal spreads through the heart as a wave of excitation.
It spreads through the walls of the atria, causing them to contract, and forcing blood into the ventricles.
The impulse passes through the AV node.
The impulse is delayed for 0.1 seconds to allow the atria to fully contract before ventricular systole.
The impulse passes through the Bundle of His.
This branches into two bundle branches then into smaller bundles called purkinje fibres.
These spread throughout the walls of the ventricles, causing them to contract.
What is pulmonary circulation?
Deoxygenated blood from the heart via the pulmonary artery to the lungs, and oxygenated blood back to the heart via the pulmonary vein.
What is sytemic circulation?
Oxygenated blood to the body via the aorta, and then the return of deoxygenated blood back to the heart via the vena cava.
What is the function of the cardiovascular system?
To deliver oxygen to the working muscles.
To remove waste products.
What is the pathway of blood?
Aorta - body - inferior/superior vena cava - right atrium - tricuspid valve - right ventricle - semi-lunar valve - pulmonary artery - lungs - pulmonary vein - left atrium - bicuspid valve - left ventricle - semi-lunar valve.
What is the cardiac control centre?
The part of the brain which controls the heart and respiratory rate.
It is found in the medulla oblongata.
What is the nervous system made up of?
The central nervous system, which consists of the brain and spinal cord.
The peripheral nervous system, which consists of nerve cells that transmit information to and from the CNS.
How does the neural control mechanism work?
When chemoreceptors, proprioceptors and baroreceptors stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, heart rate increases.
When they stimulate the parasympathetic system, heart rate decreases.
What is the hormonal control mechanism?
The release of adrenaline during exercise stimulates the SAN, which increases the speed and force of contraction, and therefore cardiac output.
This means more blood is pumped to the working muscles and recieve more oxygen.