Cardiovascular System (Rev2) Flashcards
What is the blood plasma?
It is a yellow liquid
What does blood plasma do?
Transports all your blood cells and some other substances around your body.
What is in blood plasma?
The small, soluble products of digestion pass into the plasma from your small intestine and transported into individual cells.
What do red blood cells do?
They pick up oxygen from the air in your lungs and carry it to the cells where it is needed
What do red blood cells look like?
They are biconcave discs. Being concave (pushed in) on both sides, gives them an increased surface area to volume ration for diffusion.
What is the structure of a red blood cell?
They are packed with red pigment called haemoglobin that binds to oxygen. They have no nucleus, making more space for haemoglobin.
What do white blood cells do?
They form part of the bodies self defence system against harmful microorganisms.
What do white blood cells look like?
They are much bigger than red blood cells and there are fewer of them
What is the structure of a white blood cell?
K
What are platelets?
They are small fragments of cells
What are platelets like?
They are helpful incases of wounds
What do platelets do?
They are very important in helping the blood to clot at the site of a wound. They are captured at a sight of a wound to form a jelly like clot that stops you bleeding to death. The clot dries into a scab.
What is the structure of a platelet?
They have no nucleus
3 blood vessels
Arteries, veins, capillaries
Ranking of blood vessels with thicknesss
1) Arteries-THICK WALLS as pressure is very high(thick layer of muscle and fibres)
2) Veins-RELATIVELY THIN WALL as low pressure
3) Capillaries-ONE CELL THICK
The purpose and description of the three blood vessels
Arteries-stretch as the blood is forced through them, small lumen, carry blood away from heart
Veins-carry away blood from the organs and the heart, often have valves, large lumen
Capillaries-tiny vessels in narrow lumen, connect arteries and veins
Parts of the heart
Vena cava (from body) Right atrium Right ventricle Left atrium Left ventricle Pulmonary vein (from lungs) Pulmonary artery (to lungs) Bicuspid valve and semilunar valves
Why is the left ventricle wall thicker than the right ventricle wall?
Has to pump the oxygenated blood fully round the body and back to the heart
The blood circulation in the body process
Right atrium - right ventricle - pulmonary artery - to lungs - pulmonary veins - left atrium - left ventricle - aorta - to body - (start over)
Respiratory parts
Trachea Bronchus Bronchiole Air sac(alveoli) Ribs Lung
Sequence of structures that the air passes through on its way into and out
of the lungs
Nose - trachea - bronchi - bronchioles - alveoli - bronchioles - bronchi - trachea - nose
The alveolus has some special features that enable gas exchange to occur more easily, what are they?
Large surface area
Moist surface
Thin walls
Capillary network
Large surface area
Each alveolus is like a balloon. When you have many of them together it is like having a bunch of balloons rather than one big one, there is more surface area this way for gas exchange.
Moist surface
If the surface of the alveolus is moist it makes it easier for the gases to diffuse and prevents the inner surfaces sticking together.
