WK 5+6: Cardiovascular responses to exercise Flashcards
What factors need to be controlled within Homeostasis
- Temperature
- Mean arterial blood pressure
- PCO2
- Glucose
- PO2
- pH
What is the aim of the cardiovascular system
- Get blood where its needed quickly
- maximise availability
- maintain homeostasis
What is meant by graded response
- getting the blood to where it is needed as close to the tissues that need it as quickly as possible
- the graded response is linear as exercise intensity increases
- the initial response is anticipatory as it takes place before exercise starts
What sets the limit to the cardiovascular response
- volume of blood
- cardiac output
- number of blood vessels
- ability to redistribute the flow
what is meant by central drive and where does it come from
Central drive causes the anticipatory rise in HR…
Central drive comes from your motor cortex, and is directly linked through to the medulla - your cardiorespiratory control centre
At the medulla you get a withdrawal of parasympathetic outflow and stimulation of the sympathetic outflow
- this causes the anticipatory rise in HR
what does the vagus nerve do
it starts off in the medulla and causes slowing of the heart - a parasympathetic response
what does the sympathetic nerve do
chains down the ganglia and branches off to the heart taking the epinephrine to the SA node to control the beating of the heart
It also controls the secretion of adrenaline from the medulla
what is the difference between the exercise response of a normal HR and the HR response after a heart transplant
after a heart transplant…
The anticipatory rise has gone, the response is flatter because the vagal tone isn’t actually there anymore so you have to wait for adrenaline.
The cardiac nerves have been blunted so there are no nerve interactions with your heart so the response is more gradual and is paced by circulatory factors
Cardiac output values at rest and during exercise
At rest = 3.4/4 litres per minute
During exercise = 25-30 L.min
Describe the cardiac response (supply to demand)
- Non-linear response, get an elevation in SV triggered by gastronomic action on the cardiac muscle itself
- This provides an elevation of calcium current going into each cell of the heart and causes contraction
- More current = stronger contraction
- Also phosphorylation occurring of troponin within the cardiac muscle
- this allows the heart to relax a bit faster
- deeper breaths enhance cardiac return
- … increased pressure in the thorax to hope draw blood back to the heart faster
- contractibility increases causing stimulation of the heart and the atria contracts stronger to preload the ventricles with more blood
Your blood is saturated with oxygen at what level of VO2max
40-50% VO2 max
What causes an increase in HR in the cardiac response
Recruitment of motor cortex and stimulation of the medulla
& the additional component of adrenaline
VO2 max is set by…
Maximal cardiac output = the amount of oxygen you can get to the tissues
arterial - venous = how much of it they can actually use
what is Ficks law/equation
VO2 = Q x (CaO2 - CvO2)
You can determine VO2 by sampling venous and arterial blood so you know what the difference in O2 is
What are the local control factors that determine where oxygenated blood goes to…
- increasing local adenosine
- falling local pH
- elevated local K
- elevated local CO2
- decreased local O2
- increased NO
what are local control factors competing with
Local control factors stimulate dilation, they are in competition with the sympathetic nerve which is secreting adrenaline that activates receptors on the blood vessels causing constriction
what are the adaptions to exercise training on sympathetic vasoconstriction in skeletal muscle
Those who are heavily trained can dilate more so so reduce blood flow further, this is due to:
- more blood vessels and so bigger response
- their blood vessels may be more responsive to sympathetic tone and so improve re-direction
what is NOS and where is is found
- NOS (nitric oxide synthase) is a vasodilator and is secreted during stress
- NOS is commonly found in blood vessel walls, as the endothelium of the walls secretes nitric oxide
What is the process of nNOS signalling
Ca+ release causing contraction can also use the release in NO which causes smooth muscle to relax and therefore vessels to dilate
- Ca+ activates GTP and so protein kinase G is activated which causes the dilation
what is meant by single vs multi limb exercise capacity
VO2 max of one legged exercise is 75-80% of two legged exercise
Higher blood flow can be achieved to the active muscle in one legged exercise
This is because if both legs were dilated to the same extent as during one legged exercise then blood pressure would fall to a level where the individual would lose consciousness as the brain wouldn’t get enough oxygen
What percentage of blood flow goes to skeletal muscles during rest and exercise
at rest 15-20% of blood flow = skeletal muscle
During exercise = 80-85%
what happens to systolic and diastolic BP during exercise
Systolic BP rises to optimise perfusion of the tissue as you need to get more cardiac output out
Diastolic BP should remain the same as it represents the BP in-between the heart beats - you want the difference between the two to increase
Why does systolic BP increase
The baroreceptor thats wrapped around the carotid body stretches with increased blood pressure
This sends signals back to the brain
The rise in BP during exercise is sensitive to what signals
- baroreceptors
- thermosensitive receptors
- mechxnosensitive receptors
- chemosensitive receptors