Cardiovascular System

Cardiovascular System
Composition:
•Blood
•Blood vessels
Arteries
Veins
Capillaries
•Heart Function:
•To transport
substances
around the
body.
Blood Vessels
Capillary
Arteries
• Carry blood away from heart to organs
• Carry blood under high blood pressure
• Thick muscular walls and round lumen
• Blood high in O2 and low in CO2 and H2O
• Large elastic arteries close to heart help intermittent flow from ventricles become
a continuous flow through the circulation

Veins
• Carry blood to heart from the organs
• Carry blood under low blood pressure
• Thin muscular walls and Oval lumen
• Blood low in O2 and high in CO2 and H2O
• In limbs, contain valves at reg. intervals and are sandwiched between muscle
groups to help blood travel against gravity.
Valves in Veins
Capillaries
 Capillaries
• Connect arteries to veins
• Arterioles and capillaries cause
drop in pressure due to
overcoming the friction of
blood passing through them.
• Thin walls formed from a single
layer of epithelium cells
• Deliver protein-free plasma
filtrate high in O2 to cells and
collect CO2 and H2O
Major Blood
Vessels Aorta
Carotid
Arteries
Jugular Veins
Pulmonary Veins
Superior Vena Cava

Pulmonary Artery
Hepatic
Inferior Vena Cava
Artery

Hepatic Vein Mesentric

Arteries
Hepatic Portal Vein
Renal Arteries
Renal Veins
Illiac Arteries
Illiac Veins
Circulation of Blood
• Each organ has an arterial and
venous blood supply.
• Arterial supply brings blood to the
organ.
• Venous supply drains blood away.
• Capillaries link the two supplies.
Circulation
 The Heart
• Function is to pump the blood around the
body i.e. Circulation.
• Structure
– 4 Chambers
– Valves
– 4 major blood vessels
– Coronary arteries and cardiac veins
 External view of the heart
superior
vena cava pulmonary
artery
aorta
pulmonary
pulmonary vein
vein
coronary
right atrium artery

left
inferior ventricle
vena cava right ventricle
 HRCS 3.2

The vena cava carries deoxygenated

blood from the body to the right atrium
superior
vena cava
(transports blood
from the head)

inferior
vena cava
(transports blood
from rest of body)
The right atrium collects deoxygenated
blood and pumps it to the right ventricle

right atrium
The right ventricle pumps deoxygenated
blood to the lungs

right ventricle
The pulmonary artery carries deoxygenated
blood from the right ventricle to the lungs

Pulmonary
artery
The septum separates the left and right
sides of the heart

septum
The pulmonary veins carry oxygenated
blood from the lungs to the left atrium

Pulmonary
veins
The left atrium collects the oxygenated
blood and pumps it to the left ventricle

Left atrium
 HRCS 3.2

The left ventricle pumps oxygenated

blood to the body via the aorta

Left ventricle
 HRCS 3.2

The aorta carries the oxygenated from the

left ventricle to the rest of the body

Aortic arch

Aorta
Atrio-ventricular valves prevent backflow
of blood into the atria when ventricles
contract

Tricuspid valves
Bicuspid valve
(mitral valve)

Tendon
The semi-lunar valves prevent backflow of
blood from the arteries into the ventricles

Pulmonary Aortic semi-lunar

semi-lunar valve
valve
The heart also needs its
own blood vessels –
coronary arteries and
cardiac veins.
They supply the heart
muscle with oxygen so that
the muscle cells can
respire. And remove waste
carbon dioxide.
A blockage of these arteries
leads to myocardial
infarction (heart attack)
because the heart muscle
is deprived of oxygen and
so dies.
 Blood travels through the heart twice
before returning to the body
Pulmonary Circulation Systemic Circulation

The double circulatory system

The cardiac cycle

• The events
taking place
in the heart
during one
heartbeat.
Control of the Cardiac Cycle
Myogenic
• Cardiac muscle can contract
on its own, without needing
nerve impulses.

Sinoatrial Node (SAN)

• Initiates contractions within
the heart in the right atrium.
• Acts as a clock, contracts
spontaneously and
rhythmically approx once a
second, even when
surgically removed from the
heart.
HRCS 3.2
 Cardiac Control Centre
• Heart rate is regulated by the cardiac control centre found in
the medulla oblongata of the brain.
• The cardiac control centre is controlled by the autonomic
nervous system.
– This system consists of sensory and motor nerves from
either the sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous
system.
– Sympathetic nerves increase heart rate
– Parasympathetic nerves decrease heart rate.
• The cardiac control centre initiates either sympathetic or
parasympathetic nerves to stimulate the sino-atrial node to
increase or decrease heart rate.
• There are three main factors which affect the activity of the
cardiac control centre. They are neural, hormonal and
intrinsic.
• Neural control
During exercise sensory receptors stimulate the cardiac
control centre. These receptors include:-
– Proprio-receptors which sense that movement has
increased.
– chemoreceptors which sense changes in chemicals in
the muscles and blood. These changes include increased
levels of carbon dioxide and lactic acid and increased
acidity in the blood.
– baroreceptors which are sensitive to stretch within within
the blood vessel walls. These detect increased blood
pressure.
The cardiac control centre responds to this information by
stimulating the sino-atrial node via the sympathetic cardiac
accelerator nerve to increase heart rate.
Hormonal control
Before and during exercise adrenalin is released in
the blood.
This stimulates the sino-atrial node to increase heart
rate.

Intrinsic control
During exercise temperature increases which
increases the speed of nerve impulses which in turn
increases heart rate.
Venous return increases heart rate which directly
increases End-Diastolic Volume (EDV) and therefore stroke
volume (Starlings Law).
 Calculating The Length Of The Cardiac Cycle
• How long do all the events taking place in the heart
during one heartbeat take?
• Need to know the Heart rate (bpm) = 70 and the
number of seconds in a minute.
• 1 beat (or a cardiac cycle) = 60 / 70 = 0.8 seconds.
• The higher the heart rate, the shorter the cardiac
cycle.
– This is only true until a limit is reached when the heart
would not have time to fill between successive cycles.

Systole – contraction
Diastole - relaxation
Composition of blood
 Red Blood Cells
• Also known Erythrocytes
• Most common cell in the blood
• Structure:
– Have an elastic membrane
• Important to allow transport through small capillaries
– No nucleus
• Provides large surface area to be exposed to Oxygen
– Contain the chemical haemoglobin
• Gives the red colour
• Contains iron
• Carries the oxygen forming oxyhaemoglobin
• Can’t divide – limited lifespan of around 120 days
• Made in the bone marrow
 White Blood Cells
• Also called Leukocytes
• Compared to erythrocytes:
– Large
– Have a nucleus
– Less of them
• Several types:
 White Blood Cells - Granulocytes
• Most numerous of white cells
• Contain granules in cytoplasm
• Have lobed nucleus
• Can change shape to engulf foreign particles
and micro-organisms (Phagocytosis)
• Part of the immune system – fighting infection
• Made in the bone marrow
 White Blood Cells - Lymphocytes
• Lymphocytes
– Round nucleus
– Clear cytoplasm
– Produce antibodies that attach to antigens on
microbes and toxins, neutralising them or
preventing microbes from multiplying.
– Part of the immune system – fighting infection.
– Made in lymphoid tissues
 White Blood Cells - Monocytes
• Monocytes
– Larger than lymphocytes
– Large round nucleus
– Clear cytoplasm
– Phagocytosis
– Can move into tissues
– Made in bone marrow
 Platelets
• Also known as Thrombocytes
– Not true cells – fragments of cells
– Involved in blood clotting

Plasma
• Straw-coloured
• Mainly water
• Carries dissolved substances
• E.g. nutrients and gases and plasma proteins.
• Plasma proteins are involved in clotting, transport,
defence and osmotic (water) regulation.
• Carries cells
 Composition of blood
• Can you identify the different components of
the blood?
Functions of blood
Functions of the blood
• Oxygen is carried in the
red cells
• Carbon dioxide is carried
in the plasma

The Lungs
 Functions of the blood
• digested foods are carried
in the plasma

The digestive system

Functions of the blood
• Transports waste
substances such as Urea
in the plasma

A kidney
 Functions of the blood
• Transports Hormones in
the plasma.

Sites of Hormone production

and action
 Functions of the blood
• Transports Leukocytes to fight infection.

Erythrocytes and Leukocytes.

 Functions of the blood
• Transports heat.

A Flame
Cardiac Output
 Calculating Cardiac Output
• STROKE VOLUME (SV) - volume of blood ejected from
the heart when the ventricles contract (at rest = 70 cm3)
• HEART RATE (HR) – the number of (ventricle)
contractions in one minute (at rest = 70bpm)
• CARDIAC OUTPUT (Q) – volume of blood ejected from
the heart in one minute (at rest = 5Litres)
• Q = HR X SV
 Calculating Cardiac Output
Measuring Stroke Volume
• Cardiac catheterization is where the cardiac
output can be directly measured with a
catheter in the heart. Stroke volume can then
be back calculated from this.
• Sometimes, the stroke volume can be
estimated with an echocardiogram
(ultrasound of the heart), but those
measurements are often inaccurate.
 Case Study – Cheryl and Louis
1. Cheryl trains every day by doing cross country. She
has a stroke volume of 95cm3 and a resting heart
rate of 62bpm. Calculate her cardiac output.
2. Louis enjoys playing computer games. His stroke
volume is 72cm3 and his resting heart rate is 72bpm.
Calculate his cardiac output.
3. Explain the figures in light of their different
lifestyles.
4. Explain how exercise benefits the cardiovascular
system.
 Blood Pressure
• The force blood exerts on the walls of the blood vessels it is
passing.
• Measured using a sphygmomanometer (‘sphygmo’ –
pronounced sfigmo).
• Systolic bp – corresponds to ventricles contracting.
• Diastolic bp – corresponds to ventricles relaxed and filling.
• Written as systolic/diastolic
– e.g. 120/80 mm Hg
• BP is highest in blood vessels nearer the heart.
 Blood Pressure
Normal Blood Pressure - Blood pressure reading
below 120/80 is considered normal.

High Blood Pressure - Blood pressure of 140/90 or

higher is considered high blood pressure
(hypertension). If one or both numbers are usually
high, you have high blood pressure.

Low Blood Pressure – Blood pressure of 90/60 is

considered low blood pressure. Blood pressure that is
too low is known as hypotension.

The similarity in pronunciation with hypotension and

hypertension can cause confusion.
 Blood Pressure
Normal Blood Pressure Range
Systolic pressure (mm Hg) Diastolic pressure (mm Hg) Pressure Range
130 85 High Normal Blood Pressure
120 80 Normal Blood Pressure
110 75 Low Normal Blood PressureHigh

High Blood Pressure Range

Systolic pressure (mm Hg) Diastolic pressure (mm Hg) Stages of High Blood Pressure
210 120 Stage 4
180 110 Stage 3
160 100 Stage 2
140 90 Stage 1

Low Blood Pressure Range

Systolic pressure (mm Hg) Diastolic pressure (mm Hg) Pressure Range
90 60 Borderline Low blood Pressure
60 40 Too Low Blood Pressure
50 33 Dangerously Low Blood Pressure
 Case Study – Paul
• Paul fainted in an overcrowded stadium on a hot day. He had
to stand for a very long time. As the event had lasted a few
hours, he had suffered from a lack of circulating blood to his
brain, which had caused him to faint. His muscles were
inactive for a lengthy period, the vlood had pooled in his leg
veins, and he had also lost a lot of body water through
sweating.
1. Can you suggest a way of avoiding fainting in these
circumstances?
2. Describe the effect on Paul’s legs.
3. Why is fainting an effective way of managing a lack of
circulating blood to the brain?
Finish