Coordinated CV Responses Flashcards
Why will blood flow constantly continue?
Because the pump pressure (heart and aorta) is higher than the outflow pressure (venous pressure).
What does supine mean?
Where there is a mean capillary pressure of approximately 30mmHg.
What is the change in venous and arterial pressure when you go from lying down to standing up?
Venous = 10mmHg -> 100mmHg
Arterial = 96mmHg -> 186mmHg
Why is flow not directly changed across the capillary bed in the feet when you stand up?
Because despite the enormous change in pressure the pressure gradient is unchanged so flow is not affected.
What happens to the blood when you stand up?
The venous valves in the limbs close so for a short time the blood flow out of the heart exceeds the flow in.
The excess CO travels to the veins below the heart causing them to distend.
The increased pressure in these veins re-opens the valves allowing it to flow back to the heart.
What are the two negative consequences of orthostasis (standing up)?
1) Decrease in central venous pressure reducing cardiac output.
2) Loss of blood plasma volume due to increased hydrostatic pressures.
What is the reaction of arteries upon standing up? What mediates this?
Arterial constriction to reduce blood flow.
1) Baroreceptors
2) Local sypathetic axon reflex
What aids venous return in orthostasis?
Skeletal muscle pumping around large veins.
This is capable of lowering foot venous pressure to 20-30mmHg
What causes varicose veins?
Valve failure in tributary superficial veins exposes them to chronic high pressure causing varicose veins.
What happens to venous pressure in veins above the heart when standing?
Pressure falls causing veins outside the cranium to collapse a few cms above the heart. This prevents internal pressures falling below 0 as blood can still flow through collapsed veins.
The arteriovenous pressure gradient driving cerebral perfusion falls.
Veins inside the cranium do not collapse causing their internal pressures to fall to -10mmHg.
This all leads to cerebral blood flow decreasing by 20%.
Why do veins in the cranium not collapse?
Gravity causes a downward displacement of CSF within the subarachnoid space creating a negative intracranial pressure preventing veins collapsing.
What risk is created by negative pressure within cerebral veins?
If one of them is opened during surgery there is a risk of an air embolisim.
What does prolonged standing and postural hypotension lead to?
- Progressive venous pooling
- Progressive fall in pulse pressure
- Progressive rise in heart rate and TPR
This causes a sudden fall in TPR (vasodilation) and heart rate) which leads to a steep fall in BP and cerebral blood flow = syncope.
What is vasovagal syncope?
Syncope caused by vasodilation and vagally mediated bradycardia.
What is VO2 max a measure of?
A person’s ability to do exercise. This is their max ability O2 consumption. This can increase slightly with anaerobic respiration but not much.
How do you calculate oxygen consumption?
Cardiac output x (arterial-mixed venous O2 content) i.e. mls of blood delivered per minute to the tissues minus the mls of O2 removed for each ml of blood.
Both of these factors increase progressively as exercise intensity increases.
What happens to venous O2 content during exercise?
It falls progressively as exercise intensity increases up to a point as some is needed to maintain a capillary PO2 sufficient to drive diffusion.
This improves with training as increased capillary density occurs reducing diffusion distance.