1. Cardiovascular System
McCall Phillips, Jessica Mussio, Breanna Beatty, Juri Fukuda ~ Period 1

2. What is the cardiovascular system?
The cardiovascular system (sometimes called the circulatory system) is an organ system that passes nutrients to and from cells in the body to help fight diseases and help stabilize body temperature and to maintain homeostasis. The main components of the cardiovascular system are blood, the heart, the veins, and the blood vessels.

3. Blood
Blood is a specialized body fluid that delivers necessary substances to the body’s cells and transports waste products away from those same cells. Blood is circulated around the body through blood vessels by the pumping action of the heart.

4. The Heart’s role ♥
The human heart is a hollow, muscular organ, with the job of pumping blood through a network of blood vessels. The vessels form a loop that goes out through your body, and then ends back at the heart again. The heart’s main components are: chambers, heart valves, blood vessels, arteries and veins.

5. The Chambers of the Heart
The inside of a heart is divided into four chambers:
the right atrium
the left atrium
the right ventricle
the left ventricle

6. The Chambers (cont.) The left and right atrium
The left atrium’s job is to receive oxygenated blood from the pulmonary veins, and pump it into the left ventricle.
The right atrium’s job is to receive deoxygenated blood from the superior and inferior vena cava, and pumps it into the right ventricle.
The left and right ventricle
The right ventricle receives deoxygenated blood from the right atrium and pumps it into the pulmonary artery.
The left ventricle receives oxygenated blood from the left atrium and pumps it into the aorta.

7. Heart Valves
The valves of the heart keep blood flowing in a one way direction. When they open, they only let the right amount of blood through, and then the close.
How is this important?
The circulatory loop begins with blood entering the right atrium of the heart. When the heart beats, blood flows from the right atrium into the right ventricle through a valve. From the right ventricle, blood flows through another valve and then to the lungs, where it picks up oxygen. From the lungs, it flows back into the left atrium of the heart and through the mitral valve into the left ventricle. From the left ventricle, blood is pumped through the aortic valve and into the aorta, where it goes out to the rest of the body, bringing oxygen and nutrients to your cells.

8. Blood Vessels
Blood vessels are the channels or hollow tubes through which blood is distributed to body tissues. In the cardiovascular system, the vessels make up two closed systems of tubes that begin and end at the heart. The blood vessels carry blood between the heart, different tissues, and organs of the body. There are three types of blood vessels: arteries, veins, and capillaries.

9. Arteries
Arteries carry blood away from the heart. Pulmonary arteries transport blood that has a low oxygen content from the right ventricle to the lungs.

10. The Veins
Veins carry blood toward the heart. After blood passes through the capillaries, it enters the smallest veins, called venules. From the venules, it flows into progressively larger and larger veins until it reaches the heart. In the pulmonary circuit, the pulmonary veins transport blood from the lungs to the left atrium of the heart.

11. Capillaries
Capillaries, the smallest and most numerous of the blood vessels, form the connection between the vessels that carry blood away from the heart (arteries) and the vessels that return blood to the heart (veins). The primary function of capillaries is the exchange of materials between the blood and tissue cells.

12. References
system/cardiovascular-system.html
books.com/eLibrary/Medicine/Physiology/Cardiovascular/Card io.htm\