The Cardiovascular System

Question 1

What does the cardiovascular system consist of ?

Answer 1

Heart, blood and blood vessels

Question 2

Where does the heart lie?

Answer 2

Behind the rib cage between the lungs. Heart is a pump that moves blood around the system. A typical body has about 4-5 litres of blood

Question 3

What are the three blood types ?

Answer 3

Veins
Arteries
Capillaries

Question 4

What do the arteries do?

Answer 4

Arteries Carry blood away from the heart and veins bring it back.

Question 5

What are the capillaries ?

Answer 5

Vital bits in the middle where the oxygen in the blood and the food for the body tissues is delivered. It is in these tiny blood vessels that the blood also collects the waste products from the cells and takes it away for disposal

Question 6

How does oxygen get into the blood ?

Answer 6

When you breathe in, air is sucked into the lungs. As well as going round the rest of the body, blood is pumped from heart to the lungs to collect the vital oxygen from the air you have inhaled. Oxygen rich blood travels back to the heart before it is pumped through arteries which gradually divide into tiny capillaries. In the capillaries, the nutrients from our food and oxygen are released into all the cells. CO2 is the main waste product from cells and in capillaries this is swapped from the oxygen in the fresh blood arriving from the heart. The oxygen depleted blood with its waste carbon dioxide is then carried back to the heart and the cycle begins again

Question 7

What is the largest artery in the body connected directly to the heart?

Answer 7

Aorta. Because the heart is a pump and arteries carry blood directly away from the heart, blood in them travels in spurts or surges with every heart beat.

Question 8

What is compensation?

Answer 8

When someone looses blood and various mechanisms in the body try and make up or compensate for the blood lost

Question 9

What are the statistics used to assess immediate health of your heart?

Answer 9

Blood pressure and pulse

Question 10

How is pulse taken ?

Answer 10

By pressing one of several pulse points. This is where the arteries are close enough to the surface of the skin for the spurts that we talked about earlier to be felt. This makes it possible to measure heart rate by counting contractions of the artery

Question 11

How is blood pressure taken?

Answer 11

Blood pressure is the force of blood against the artery walls. It is recorded as two numbers ~ the systolic pressure or the diastolic pressure.

Question 12

What is a palpitation?

Answer 12

When someone experiences the sensation of their heart beating irregularly or more rapidly or forcefully than it should. Could also mean heart is beating slower or differently from normal

Question 13

How do people describe palpitations?

Answer 13

Thudding, racing, fluttering, missing a beat

Question 14

Angina

Answer 14

Caused by a lack of oxygen reaching the heart muscle because of poor blood flow

Question 15

How do people describe angina ?

Answer 15

Feeling of heaviness, pressure, tightness or pain in the centre of the chest that may spread to arms, neck, jaw, face back or abdomen.

Question 16

What is a heart attack?

Answer 16

Occurs when the blood supply to part of the heart muscle is cut off, usually because of a blood clot. The pain of a heart attack is often severe but may be mistaken for bad indigestion

Question 17

What are the main symptoms of a heart attack?

Answer 17

Persistent chest pain 
Breathlessness or gasping for air
Faintness 
Sweating
Grey pale skin

Question 18

What is an aortic aneurysm?

Answer 18

A bulging, weakened area in an artery wall. The force or blood pushing against a damaged area can cause an aneurysm

Question 19

Where do most aneurysms occur?

Answer 19

In the aorta and the arteries in the brain. The bulge can be small and spherical like a berry or larger and more balloon like

Question 20

What is the most common cause of aortic aneurysm?

Answer 20

Atherosclerosis. Where fatty deposits are laid down in the walls of arteries making them weaker.

Question 21

What are the risk factors of atherosclerosis?

Answer 21

Smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol obesity and a family history of cardiovascular disease