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Human Circulatory System

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In large, complex, multicellular organisms, such as the human body, the circulatory system is essential to survival. Unlike single-celled organisms, such as bacteria and viruses, which are much smaller, the scale of the human body necessitates a large and complex transport system so as to ensure that substances can be transported around within it. Single-celled organisms, which are able to absorb oxygen and nutrients from the surrounding environment and excrete their waste products back out into the environment by means of diffusion (or osmosis, when water is involved), do not require a transport system, for this very reason. However, the sheer size of the human body and the distances that substances need to travel makes it impossible for …show more content…

The main organ of the circulatory system, and its ‘centre’, so to speak, is the heart, which is shown in the on the bottom right. Although the heart is not the largest of the body’s organs (the adult human heart is roughly the size of a clenched fist, and it only weighs about 310 grams), it is one of the strongest and, undeniably, the most important. The outer walls of the heart are made up of thick layers of muscle, which vary in thickness depending on where in the heart one looks - the muscle surrounding the left ventricle is much thicker than that surrounding the right ventricle, as the left ventricle has to pump blood further, and thus needs to be stronger. The inside of the heart is split vertically into two halves, separated by the septum, which each perform a distinct function: the right half receives the deoxygenated blood from the body and pumps it to the lungs, where it is reoxygenated, and the left half, which receives the freshly-oxygenated blood from the lungs, and pumps it to the rest of the body. These two halves are then ‘split’ horizontally into rough halves, leaving us with the atriums, which are the uppermost cavities, and the ventricles, which are the slightly larger of the two, located below the atriums. The atriums are not separated from the ventricles by walls of tissue, but instead by atrioventricular valves. On the right side, these valves are called the tricuspid valves, and on the left side, they are the mitral

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The cardiac cycle is the coordination of the filling and exhausting of blood by electrical signals that cause the heart muscles to contract and unwind. The contraction of the heart is directed by a nerve drive that goes from the SA node to AV node to AV group to Purkinje fibers to the myocardium. Amid the cardiac cycle, the heart contracts by means of systole, pushing blood out of the heart, and unwinds through diastole, filling the heart with blood. Cardiomyocytes, or cardiac cells, are striated and are in charge of the pumping of the heart; they are the main muscle cells with intercalated plates. The heart's inner pacemaker controls and times the thumping of the heart by means of electrical signals.

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Veins transport blood to the heart and lungs at low pressure after receiving it from the capillaries. Valves inside the veins keep blood moving in one direction. The human body's arterial system branches out from one main artery, the dorsal aorta. Like veins, arteries have three layers: an outer layer of tissue, an inner layer of epithelial cells and a layer of muscle in between.

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The functions of the human cardiopulmonary system can be broken down into two, circulatory system and the respiratory system. The main goal of these two systems is to maintain homeostasis in our body. Homeostasis can be described as a type of condition where the internal continuity of an individual has to keep steadiness, regardless of any external changes from the outside environment. External changes from the outside environment may include factors such as excitement, stress, exercise, diet, and much more. Exercise can be carried out because the human body can endure a high level of exercise during a prolonged period of time.

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Normally, low-oxygen blood entering the right side of the heart stays on the right side, and subsequently oxygen-rich blood stays on the left side of the heart, where it is then pumped to the body and tissues. When a defect or "hole" is present between the atria (or upper chambers of heart), some oxygen-rich blood leaks back to the right side of the heart. It then goes back to the lungs even though it is already rich enough in oxygen. Because of this, there is a significant increase in the blood that goes to the lungs overall. Atrial septal defects can

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Vesalius had observed, by dissection, that there were no pores in the septum of the heart. This meant that direct transfer of blood was not possible. Harvey’s explanation for how blood was transferred from the right ventricle to the left ventricle was that it went through the lungs via the pulmonary arteries and returned through veins to the left auricle, and subsequently to the left ventricle. Once again this description was a simplified explanation of flow in line with his observations and those of Vesalius and

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First, it was 61 years ago, in 1954, that Dr. C. Walton Lillehei performed the fi rst cross-circulation procedures at the University. One year ago in January, Earl Bakken (the cofounder of Medtronic) turned 90 years old; Dr. Bakken has fi ve implanted Medtronic devices and continues to be an inspiration to those working in this fi eld. For the past 15 years, the University of Minnesota has presented the week-long short course Advanced Cardiac Physiology and Anatomy , which was designed specifi cally for the biomedical engineer working in the industry; this serves as the course textbook. Thus there was a need to update the textbook to include state-of-the-art information on a variety of topics related to cardiac anatomy, physiology, and devices. For example, six new chapters were added to this third edition, and all other chapters were carefully updated and/or greatly expanded.

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Scientists believed that the right ventricle had little to no role in cardiac mechanical function. However, as scientists did more research they found that the right ventricle played an important role in cardiac function. The scientists conducting this research wanted to better understand the structure and function of the RV. They studied the anatomical structure of the RV and discovered that RV has a more elaborate anatomical structure than that of the LV. The RV fibers are composed of several layers of muscle, giving the RV its shape.

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6 Fun facts about the circulatory system: If you stretch out all the arteries, veins, and capillaries; they will stretch out to 100,000 KM in distance, and this distance circles the Earth 2.5 times. The capillaries make up about 80% of the length, even though they are the smallest of all blood vessels. blood cells are roughly the same length and width as capillaries. Capillaries are 8 micros or 1/3000 inches big. However, some capillaries are smaller than blood cells, which forces these blood cells to change and distort shapes in order to go through these capillaries.

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“An average heart has four chambers; two upper, called the atria and two lower, called the ventricles. The right side of the heart receives blood that is returning from the body. This oxygen-lacking blood arrives in the right atrium, where it is pumped into the right ventricle. The right ventricle sends the blood to the lungs, where it is picks up plenty of oxygen. This oxygen-rich blood then enters the left atrium and is pumped into the left ventricle, which pumps blood through the aorta to all the organs and tissues of the body” (Blaser).

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The heart is a muscular organ the size of a clenched fist situated in the middle of the chest tilted slightly to the left. The heart receives its own oxygenated blood supplied by the coronary arteries and the coronary veins that take away the deoxygenated blood. The heart is made up of four chambers the left and right atrium and the left and right ventricle. The oxygenated blood travels from the lungs through the pulmonary veins, the pulmonary vein are the only veins in the body that carry oxygenated blood to the heart, the blood then enters the left atrium the blood is then pushed through the bicuspid valve, where the blood now enters the left ventricle where the blood is then pumped through the aortic valve into the aorta where the oxygenated

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Heart failure is when the heart is not functioning properly and becomes unable to supply the body properly with oxygen. Congestive heart failure is when this lack of function begins affecting the lungs ability to function normally by filling the alveoli with fluid. During normal functioning of the cardiovascular system, blood arrives at the right atrium of the heart via the vena cava. The right atrium empties blood into the right ventricle, which pumps it’s contents into the arterioles surrounding the alveoli of the lungs. From the lungs, the blood voyages to the left atrium of the heart.

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Because of this inability to contract effectively, the rest of the vital organs receive inadequate amount of blood resulting to inadequate tissue perfusion. There are two types of left-sided HF; systolic and diastolic failure. Systolic failure happens when the left ventricle doesn’t have the enough energy to pump normally the blood to the general circulation. As for diastolic failure, the left ventricle loses the ability to fill itself with blood during resting period resulting to inadequate amount of blood to be pumped out to the circulation (Weinrauch, 2008). The diastolic dysfunction will eventually lead to right-sided heart failure.

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The objective of this experiment is check how heart chambers, vessels and valves of the heart help the heart to achieve its function of pumping blood all over the body. In addition, this experiment would help us understand the double circulation of blood and reasons why it is vital for mammalian organisms. Due to the complexity of mammalian organisms, the exchanges of substances such as oxygen, nutrients and hormones cannot rely on diffusion itself (Kent, 2013). The transportation

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The Cardiovascular system consists of the heart and the vascular system. The heart is a two sided pump with 4 chambers. The right atrium receives de oxygenated blood from the veins of the body. The right ventricle pumps deoxygenated blood to the lungs via the pulmonary arteries.

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