Cardiovascular Physiology

Front 1

What is plasma? What does it consist of?

Back 1

Liquid portion of blood. Dissolved in it are large number of proteins, nutrients, metabolic wastes

Front 2

What are platlets?

Back 2

cell fragments present in the blood.

Front 3

Which is the primary cell type within the blood and what is its function? What are the functions of other cells within blood?

Back 3

erythrocytes (red blood cells) carry oxygen. leukocytes protect against infection and cancer and the platelets function in blood clotting.

Front 4

what is hematocrit?

Back 4

percentage of blood volume that is erythrocytes.

Front 5

If blood were centrifuged, described from top to bottom how the blood would segregate and the percentage of each component.

Back 5

plasma (uppermost) is 55%; then leukocytes and platelets form thin layer and then erythrocytes (bottommost) is 45%.

Front 6

Each half of the heart is contains two chambers...what are they?

Back 6

upper chamber - atrium;
lower chamber - ventricle

Front 7

Describe pulmonary circulation and systemic circulation.

Back 7

Blood is pumped from the right ventricle through the lungs and then to the left atrium. It is then pumped through the systemic circulation from the left ventricle through all the organs and tissues of the body except the lungs and then to the right atrium.

Front 8

What are arteries and veins?

Back 8

Arteries carry blood away from the heart and veins carry blood from body organs and tissues back toward the heart.

Front 9

with which circulation system is the aorta involved? describe the blood path from the heart.

Back 9

in the systemic circuit blood leaves the left ventricle via the aorta. the arteries of the systemic circulation branch off the aorta, dividing into progressively smaller vessels. the smallest arteries branch into arterioles which branch into a huge number of very small vessles, the capillaries, which unite to form large diameter vessles called the venules. the venules in the systemic circulation then unite to form larger vessels, the veins. the veins from the varios peripheral organs and tissues unite to produce two large veins the inferior vena cava and the superior vena cava.

Front 10

Distinguish between the inferior vena cava and the superior vena cava.

Back 10

inferior vena cava - collects blood from below the heart; superior vena cava - collects blood from above the heart.

Front 11

Describe the pulmonary circulation.

Back 11

Blood leaves the right ventricle via a single large artery, the pulmonary trunk, which divides into the two pulmonary arteries, one supplying the right lung and the other the left. In the lungs, the arteries continue to branch, ultimately forming capillaries that unite into venules and then veins. The blood leaves the lungs via four pulmonary veins, which empty into the left atrium.

Front 12

How does blood pick up oxygen?

Back 12

As blood flows through the lung capillaries, it picks up oxygen supplied to the lungs by breathing.

Front 13

What parts of the circulatory system have high oxygen content?

Back 13

the blood in the pulmonary veins, left side of the heart, and systemic arteries

Front 14

What is the difference in the amount of blood pumped to the lungs and the peripheral organs and tissues?

Back 14

the lungs receive ALL the blood pumped by the right side of the heart. As seen by the branching pattern of the systemic arteries, the peripheral organs and tissues receive only a fraction of the blood pumped by the left ventricle

Front 15

Describe the direction of blood flow.

Back 15

Blood flow is always from a region of higher pressure to one of lower pressure.

Front 16

What aspects of pressure affect blood flow?

Back 16

It is not the absolute pressure but the difference in pressure between relavent points.

Front 17

What is the basic formula relating pressure, resistance and blood flow?

Back 17

F = delP/R

Front 18

What is resistance?

Back 18

how difficult it is for blood to flow between tow points at any given pressure difference.

Front 19

What properties influence resistance? What is the formula to determine resistance?

Back 19

viscosity, length, radius of the tube.
R=(8 x length of tube x viscosity)/(pie x radius to the fourth power)

Front 20

As hemacrit increases, how does blood viscosity change?

Back 20

also increases

Front 21

what happens to hemacrit during extreme dehydration?

Back 21

reduction in body water leads to a relative increase in hematocrit, and thus an increase in the viscoity of the blood.

Front 22

Under physiological conditions, does viscosity play a role in CONTROLLING resistance?

Back 22

under physiological conditions, hematocrit and thus viscosity of blood is relatively constant and does NOT play a role.

Front 23

Physiologically, which one changes: lengths of blood vessels or radius of blood vessels.

Back 23

Radius of blood vessels does not remain constant, therefore, 1/r to the 4th power is the most important determinant of changes in resistance. Lengths of blood vessels remain constant in the blody.