Cardiovascular System I Flashcards
- Delivers oxygen and nutrients to the body tissues.
- Carries away wastes such as carbon dioxide via blood.
Cardiovascular System
Pumps blood throughout the body in blood vessels.
Heart
Requires both the pumping action of heart and changes in blood pressure.
Blood Flow
Can make exchanges only with the interstitial fluid in their immediate vicinity.
Cells
Major function of the cardiovascular system.
Transportation
Transport vehicle that carries oxygen, nutrients, cell wastes, hormones, and other substances vital for body homeostasis.
Blood
Force to move the blood around.
Beating Heart and Blood Pressure
Includes a muscular pump equipped with one-way valves and a system of large and small blood vessels.
Cardiovascular System
Size and shape of the heart.
- Approximately the size of a person’s fist.
- Hollow, cone-shaped heart.
- Weighs less than a pound.
Medial section of the thoracic cavity where the heart is snugly enclosed with and flanked on each side by the lungs.
Inferior Mediastinum
- Directed toward the left hip and rests on the diaphragm, approximately at the level of the 5th intercostal space.
- Where to place the stethoscope to count the heart rate of the apical pulse.
Pointed Apex
- Broad posterosuperior aspect from which the great vessels of the body emerge.
- Points toward the right shoulder and lies beneath the second hip.
Base
- Sac that encloses the heart.
- Made up of three layers: outer fibrous layer and a pair of inner serous membrane.
Pericardium
- Loosely fitting superficial part of the pericardium.
- Helps protect the heart and anchors it to surrounding structures (diaphragm and sternum)
Fibrous Pericardium
Slippery, two-layered deep to the fibrous pericardium.
Serous Pericardium
Parietal layer of the serous pericardium that lines the interior of the fibrous pericardium.
Parietal Pericardium
Attaches to the large arteries leaving the heart, makes U-turn, continues inferiorly over the heart surface as the visceral layer.
Parietal layer at the superior aspect of the heart.
- Visceral layer of the serous pericardium which is part of the heart wall.
- Innermost layer of the pericardium and outermost layer of the heart wall.
Visceral Pericardium or Epicardium
Produces lubricating serous fluid.
Serous Pericardial Membranes
Where the serous pericardial membranes is collected.
Pericardial Cavity
Allows the heart to beat easily in a relatively frictionless environment.
Lubricating Serous Fluid
- Inflammation of the pericardium.
- Decrease in already small amounts of serous fluid.
- Causes pericardial layers to rub, bind, and stick to each other.
- Form painful adhesions that interfere with heart movements.
Pericarditis
Three layers that compose the heart walls.
- Outer Epicardium
- Myocardium
- Innermost Endocardium
- Thick bundles of cardiac muscle formed into ringlike arrangements.
- Layer that actually contracts.
- Reinforced internally by a network of dense fibrous connective tissue.
Myocardium
Linked together by intercalated discs that contain both demosomes and gap junctions.
Myocardial Cells
Allow ions to flow from cell to cell.
Gap Junctions at Intercalated Discs
- Thin, glistening sheet of endothelium that lines the heart chambers.
- Continuous with the linings of the blood vessels leaving and entering the heart.
Endocardium
Four hollow cavities or chambers of the heart.
- Two Atria
- Two Ventricles
Lines each chamber to help blood flow smoothly through the heart.
Endocardium
- Receiving chambers.
- Not important in the pumping activity of the heart.
- Assist with filling the ventricles.
- Blood flows under low pressure from the veins of the body and continues on to fill the ventricles.
Superior Atria
- Discharging chambers.
- Actual pumps of the heart.
- When they contract, blood is propelled out of the heart and into circulation.
Inferior, Thick-Walled Ventricles
Forms most of the heart’s anterior surface.
Right Ventricle
Forms the heart’s apex.
Left Ventricle
Septum that divides the atria longitudinally.
Interatrial Septum
Septum that divides the ventricles longitudinally.
Interventricular Septum
- Arteries carrying blood away from the heart.
- Veins carrying blood toward the heart.
Heart as a Double Pump
Function of the right side of the heart.
Pulmonary Circuit Pump
Receives oxygen-poor blood from the veins and pumps it through the pulmonary trunk.
Large Superior Vena Cava and Inferior Vena Cava
Splits into the right and left pulmonary arteries.
Pulmonary Trunk
Carry blood to the lungs where oxygen is picked up and carbon dioxide is unloaded.
Pulmonary Arteries