Chapter 20: Blood Vessels Flashcards
________________ carry blood away from heart
______________ carry blood back to heart
Arteries carry blood away from heart
Veins carry blood back to heart
_________ connect smallest arteries to smallest veins and directly serve tissue cells
Capillaries
Define lumen
central blood-containing space
The walls of arteries and veins composed of what?
3 tunics
What are the 3 tunics of blood vessels?
Tunica interna, tunica media, and tunica externa
Describe tunica interna of blood vessels
- Endothelium: simple squamous epithelium overlying basement membrane
- Acts as a selectively permeable barrier
- Secretes chemicals that stimulate dilation or constriction
- Normally repels blood cells and platelets
Describe tunica media
- Consists of smooth muscle, collagen, and elastic tissue
- Regulated in part by sympathetic nervous system
- Controls vasoconstriction (muscle contracts) and vasodilation (muscle relaxes)
Describe tunica externa
- Collagen fibers that protect and reinforce vessels
- Anchors the vessel and provides passage for small nerves, lymphatic vessels
- Vasa vasorum (**): small vessels that supply blood to outer part of the larger vessels
What are the 4 types of arteries?
1) Conducting (elastic or large) arteries
2) Distributing (muscular or medium) arteries
3) Resistance (small) arteries
4) Metarterioles
Describe conducting (elastic or large) arteries
- Biggest arteries
- Aorta, common carotid, subclavian, pulmonary trunk, and common iliac arteries
- Have layers of elastic tissue
- Expand during systole, taking pressure
- Recoils during diastole maintains pressure and keeps blood flowing
Describe distributing (muscular or medium) arteries
- Distributes blood to specific organs
- Brachial, femoral, renal, and splenic arteries
- Smooth muscle layers constitute three-fourths of wall thickness
Describe resistance (small) arteries
- Arterioles**: smallest arteries
- Thicker tunica media in proportion to their lumen and very little tunica externa
Describe metarterioles
- In some places, short vessels that link arterioles to capillaries
- Have a precapillary sphincter
Describe an aneurysm and list its most common sites
- Weak point in artery or heart wall
- Forms a thin-walled, bulging sac that pulsates with each heartbeat and may rupture at any time
- Most common sites: abdominal aorta, renal arteries, and arterial circle at base of brain
Describe arterial sense organs
- Sensory structures in walls of major vessels that monitor blood pressure and chemistry
- Transmit information to brainstem to regulate heart rate, blood vessel diameter, and respiration
Carotid and aortic bodies are ____receptors, whereas carotid sinuses are ____receptors
Carotid and aortic bodies are chemoreceptors, whereas carotid sinuses are baroreceptors
Name 3 arterial sense organs
1) Carotid body
2) Carotid sinus
3) Aortic body
Define capillaries and what they’re composed of
- Defined as exchange vessels
- Composed of endothelium and basal lamina
Name the 3 types of capillaries
1) Continuous capillaries
2) Fenestrated capillaries
3) Sinusoids
Describe continuous capillaries
- Occur in most tissues
- Endothelial cells have tight junctions forming a continuous tube
- Intercellular clefts allow passage of small solutes such as glucose
- Blood-brain barrier do not have the clefts
- Least permeable, most common
What is the least permeable but most common type of capillary?
Continuous capillaries
Describe fenestrated capillaries and where they’re found
-Found in organs that require rapid absorption or filtration (Kidneys, small intestine)
=Endothelial cells riddled with holes called filtration pores (fenestrations)
Describe sinusoids (discontinuous capillaries) and where they’re found
- Found in liver, bone marrow, spleen
- Irregular blood-filled spaces with large fenestrations
- Allow proteins (albumin), clotting factors, and new blood cells to enter the circulation
- Most permeable
What is the most permeable type of capillary?
Sinusoids (discontinuous capillaries)
Define and describe capillary beds
- Defined as networks of 10-100 capillaries
- Usually supplied by a single arteriole or metarteriole
- At any given time, three-fourths of body’s capillaries are shut down
- Most control of flow involves constriction of arterioles that are upstream from the capillaries
- Within the capillary bed, precapillary sphincters control flow
Most control of flow involves constriction of _______ that are upstream from the capillaries.
Within the capillary bed, _________ _______ control flow
arterioles; precapillary sphincters
At any given time, _________ of body’s capillaries are shut down
three-fourths
Describe the characteristics of veins
- Greater capacity for blood than arteries
- Thinner walls, less muscular, collapse when empty, expand easily
- ______(**))_____blood pressure
List 4 types of veins and their sizes
- Postcapillary venules: smallest veins
- Muscular venules: up to 1 mm in diameter
- Medium veins: up to 10 mm in diameter
- Large veins: diameter larger than 10 mm
Describe the characteristics of medium veins
- Up to 10 mm in diameter
- Thin tunica media and thick tunica externa
- Tunica interna forms one-way valves
Describe venous sinuses
- Veins with especially thin walls, large lumens, and no smooth muscle
- Dural venous sinus and coronary sinus of the heart
- Not capable of vasoconstriction
Describe large veins
- Diameter larger than 10 mm
- Thin tunica media with thicker tunica externa
- Have venae cavae, pulmonary veins, internal jugular veins, and renal veins
Describe varicose veins and factors that can make them worse
- Blood pools in the lower legs of people who stand for long periods stretching the veins: valves fail in superficial veins, blood backflows and further distends the vessels, walls grow weak
- Hereditary weakness, obesity, and pregnancy also promote problems
Name a type of varicose vein
Hemorrhoids: varicose veins of the anal canal
What is the simplest and most common route for blood? (hint: passes through only one network of capillaries)
Heart > arteries > arterioles > capillaries > venules > veins > Heart
Define a portal system and give 3 examples
- When blood flows through two consecutive capillary networks before returning to heart
- Examples:
1) Between hypothalamus and anterior pituitary
2) In kidneys
3) Between intestines to liver
Define anastomosis
A convergence point between two vessels other than capillaries
Define an arteriovenous anastomosis (shunt)
Artery flows directly into vein, bypassing capillaries
Define a venous anastomosis
- Most common
- Vein blockage is less serious than arterial blockage
Define an arterial anastomosis
- Provides collateral (alternative) routes of blood supply to a tissue
- Coronary circulation and common around joints
Blood supply to a tissue can be expressed in terms of ______ and _______
Blood supply to a tissue can be expressed in terms of flow and perfusion
Define blood flow
The amount of blood flowing through an organ, tissue, or blood vessel in a given time (mL/min.)
Define perfusion
The flow per given volume or mass of tissue in a given time (mL/min./g)
At rest, total flow is quite constant, and is equal to the _______ _______ (5.25 L/min)
cardiac output
What are blood pressure, resistance, and flow needed for?
Delivery of nutrients and oxygen, and removal of metabolic wastes
Physical principles of blood flow based on _______ and _______
pressure and resistance
The greater the _______ difference between two points, the greater the flow.
pressure
The greater the ________, the less the flow
resistance
Define blood pressure (BP)
The force that blood exerts against a vessel wall