Year 1 - Cardio Vascular Flashcards
What are arteries?
Blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart.
What are veins?
Blood vessels that carry blood back to the heart.
What are capillaries?
Tiny blood vessels where substances are exchanged between the blood and the body cells.
What is the Cardio Vascular System?
The system made up of the heart and the blood vessels.
What are the coronary artereries?
Blood vessels that branch from the aorta and carry oxygen-rich blood to the cardiac muscle
What is the right atrium?
Heart chamber that receives deoxygenated blood from the body
What is the right ventricle?
Heart chamber that pumps deoxygenated blood to the lungs
What is the left arium?
Heart chamber that receives oxygenated blood from the lungs
What is the left ventricle?
Heart chamber that pumps oxygenated blood to the body
What is the aorta?
It is the main artery of the body that carries oxygenated blood from the left ventricle to the body.
What is the pulmonary artery?
Carries deoxygenated blood from the right ventricle to the body
What is the vena cava?
It is a large vein that carries deoxygenated blood into the right atrium
What is the pulmonary vein?
Carries oxygenated blood from the lungs to the left atrium of the heart
What is the cardiac muscle?
Proper term for heart muscle
What is the tricuspid valve?
It is the valve between the right atrium and the right ventricle
What is the bicuspid valve?
It is the valve between the left atrium and the left ventricle
What is the general purpose of the heart valves?
To prevent the back flow of blood
What is the semilunar valve?
A valve located at each exit of the heart, where the aorta leaves the left ventricle and the pulmonary artery leaves the right ventricle
What is the cusp?
The proper term for a flap of a valve
What is myogenic?
Describes muscle tissue that initiates its own contractions
What is systole?
Proper term for contraction of a heart chamber
What is diastole?
Proper term for relaxation of a heart muscle
Which valve closes when the left ventricle contracts?
Bicuspid
What is the general term for the bicuspid and tricuspid valves?
Atrioventricular valves
What valve opens when the left ventricle contracts?
Aortic semilunar valve
What is the location of the sinoatrial node?
The right atrium
What is the atrioventricular node (AVN)?
It causes a short delay in the wave of electrical activity as it passes across the heart, then sends it down along the septum between the ventricles
What is the purpose of the short delay of the wave of electrical activity at the AVN?
Gives time for the atria to empty and ventricles to fill with blood before ventricular contraction
What do the bundle of His branch into?
The purkinje fibres
What does the movement of impulse through the Purkinje fibres ensure?
The ventricles contract from bottom up, forcing blood out of the heart
What does ECG stand for?
Electrocardiogram
Where are ECG electrodes placed?
Skin
What is the general purpose of the heart valves?
They prevent the back flow of blood
What are the semilunar valves?
Valves located at each exit of the heart, where the aorta leaves the left ventricle and the pulmonary artery leaves the right ventricle.
What is the cusp?
Proper term for a flap of a valve
What does it mean when something is Myogenic?
It means that the muscle tissue that initiates its own contractions
What is systole?
Proper term for contractions of a heart chamber
What is diastole?
Proper term for relaxation of a heart chamber
What valve closes when the left ventricle contracts?
The bicuspid valve
What is the general term for bicuspid and tricuspid valves?
Atrioventricular valves
What valve opens when the left ventricle contracts?
Aortic semilunar valve
What is the sinotrial node (SAN)?
The pacemaker of the heart
What is the location of sinoatrial node?
Right atrium
What is the atrioventricular node (AVN)?
Causes a short delay in the wave of electrical activity as it passes across the heart, then sends it down along the septum between the ventricles.
What is the purpose of the short delay of the wave of electrical activity at the AVN?
It gives time for atria to empty and ventricles to fill with blood before ventricular contraction
What does the bundle of His branch into?
Purkyne fibres
What does the movement of impulse through Purkyne fibres ensure?
Ventricles contract from bottom up, forcing blood out of the heart
What does ECG stand for?
Electrocardiogram
Where are ECG electrodes placed?
Skin
What do ECG electrodes detect?
Tiny electrical changes on the skin that arise from electrical activity of the heart during each heart beat.
What are the nodes, bundle of His and Purkyne fibres all made up of?
Specialised cardiac muscle tissue
What can we say when electrical activity passes across a part of the heart?
That part is depolarized
What do P waves represent?
Atrial depolarisation (and therefore ventricular systole)
What do T waves represent?
Ventricular depolarisation (and relaxation)
What does the QRS complex represent?
Ventricular depolarisation (and therefore ventricular systole)
What does the PR interval represent?
Time from when the impulse is generated by the SA node to it being released from the AV node.
What does the QT interval represent?
Time taken for ventricular depolarisation and depolarisation (time taken for ventricles to contract and relax)
What are the common problems identified using ECG?
Incorrect heart rate and rhythm
What are the causes of an abnormal ECG?
Damage to heart tissue (e.g. due to a heart attack); congenital disorder; stress; smoking; alcohol
What does congenital mean?
Present at birth
What is an artefact?
An error in the representation of results that occurs as a result of the technique being used
What are the causes of ECG artefact?
“Motion artefacts” if patients are shivering or have a disorder that causes tremor (such as Parkinson’s or MS).
What is an Ambulatory ECG?
Recorded for 24-48 hours or longer (using a portable device) to evaluate cardiac rate and rhythm; then correlated with diary of patient’s symptoms/activities
What is the proper term for an ECG recording?
Trace
What is a stress ECG/ stress echo?
ECG or echo of heart recorded during/ just after controlled physical exercise. Forms part of an exercise tolerance test.
What is the importance of correct heart rate and rhythm?
Deliver enough oxygen and glucose to tissues for respiration to release energy
What is the abbreviation for Echocardiogram?
Echo
How does echocardiography work?
An ultrasound of the heart: high frequency sound waves reflect off surfaces to image the moving heart.
What is an arrhythmia?
Abnormal heart rate or rhythm
What is heart rate?
Number of beats per minutes
What is heart rhythm?
The sequence of events of a heart beat
What is exercise tolerance test?
- Gradually increase exercise intensity (e.g. on treadmill) until maximum heart rate for age is reached.
- Monitor ECG and blood pressure throughout.
- Echo can be performed before and just after exercise
What is tachycardia?
Resting heart rate over 100 bpm
What is bradycardia?
Resting heart rate below 60 bpm
What does the non-conductor tissue between the atria and ventricles do?
Stops the impulse going directly down the ventricles, therefore preventing their premature contraction
What is normal sinus rhythm?
Normal heart rhythm you would expect with the SAN working properly
What does the long PR interval mean?
It is a sign that the AV node is delaying the impulse excessively
What is the importance of ETT?
Some heart problems only appear during exercise e.g. angina
Why is shivering a particular concern during the ECG?
The patient will be topless and if the patient is moving it will have an affect on the ECG results
Why might hair have to be shaved and conductive gel have to be applied when doing an ECG?
To improve detection of signals from the heart.
Method for measuring blood pressure
- Sit patient with left arm uncovered resting on a table
- fit cuff around this arm
- Inflate cuff until blood flow stops
- Deflate the cuff
- Record the systolic and diastolic values and amylase taking into consideration the time of day
Cuff problems that can give incorrect blood pressure readings
- Incorrectly sized cuff used
- Position of patient’s arm on which cuff is placed
Make sure patient has not done the following in order to avoid false high blood pressure readings
Within 30 min before reading:
- drinking coffee
- smoking tobacco
- exercising
What will the minimum cuff pressure needed to completely stop blood flow match?
Systolic blood pressure
When the cuff relaxes, what matches the first pressure at which pulsing (throbbing) of the artery are no longer detected?
Diastolic blood pressure
What is systolic pressure?
Defines as maximum arterial pressure during contraction of the left ventricle of the heart
What is diastolic pressure?
Defined as minimum arterial pressure during relaxation of the ventricles of the heart
What is hypertension?
Abnormally high blood pressure
Hypertension does not produce symptoms as such…
But can increase a person’s chances of having a stroke or heart attack
What is a stroke?
When blood stops flowing to a part of the brain, due to a clot or rupture in a blood vessel.
What is atherosclerosis?
Condition in which fatty deposits called plaque build up in the inner walls of the arteries
How does atherosclerosis lead to cardiac arrest?
- Plaque in the coronary artery bursts
- This causes a blood clot to form
- Plaque/ blood clot restricts blood flow into the heart muscle
- Heart muscle starved of (blood and) oxygen
How can you reduce the risk of coronary heart disease?
- Eat a low fat diet/ low salt diet
- Do more physical activity
- Maintain a healthy weight/ lose weight
- Give up smoking
- Reduce alcohol consumption
- Control blood pressure/ diabetes
- Take prescribed medicatiom
What are the ways that increase the risk of coronary heart disease?
- Eat a high fat diet/ high salt diet
- Do less physical activity
- Don’t maintain a healthy weight/ gain weight
- Smoking
- Increase alcohol consumption
- High blood pressure/ diabetes
- Not taking prescribed medication
What sort of pressure is it in the aorta?
Highest
Why does the left ventricle of heart exerts higher pressure on blood?
The muscle layer is thicker
What happens when blood travels in the artery?
The pressure drops
What corresponds to the rise and fall in pressure?
Contraction and relaxation of ventricles in the heart
Why does the fluctuations in blood pressure across cardiac cycle reduce?
Due to the stretch and recoil of artery walls
Why do arteriolar have lower pressure?
The friction with the vessel walls
Why do capillaries have lower pressure?
Due to the large total cross-sectional area of the network
What does low capillary blood pressure mean?
Blood flows slowly in the capillaries, which gives more time for gas exchange
What is the pressure in the veins low?
The return blood flow being non-pulsatile
How can venous blood pressure be increased?
The massaging effect of muscles
What does valves in veins ensure?
The one-way flow of blood back to the heart
What is triglyceride?
Glycerol plus 3 fatty acids
What bond that attaches a fatty acid to glycerol?
Ester bonds
What is the fatty acids with only single C-C bonds?
Saturated
What is the fatty acids with at least one C=C double bond?
Unsaturated
