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The heart is the driver of the circulatory system, pumping blood through rhythmic contraction and relaxation. The rate of blood flow out of the heart (often expressed in L/min) is known as the cardiac output (CO). Blood being pumped out of the heart first enters the aorta, the largest artery of the body.
In vertebrates, the circulatory system is a system of organs that includes the heart, blood vessels, and blood which is circulated throughout the body. [1] [2] It includes the cardiovascular system, or vascular system, that consists of the heart and blood vessels (from Greek kardia meaning heart, and Latin vascula meaning vessels).
Cardiac physiology or heart function is the study of healthy, unimpaired function of the heart: involving blood flow; myocardium structure; the electrical conduction system of the heart; the cardiac cycle and cardiac output and how these interact and depend on one another.
Distension of the vessels due to increased blood pressure is a fundamental stimulus for muscle contraction in arteriolar walls. As a consequence, microcirculation blood flow remains constant despite changes in systemic blood pressure. This mechanism is present in all tissues and organs of the human body.
The human hepatic portal system delivers about three-fourths of the blood going to the liver.The final common pathway for transport of venous blood from spleen, pancreas, gallbladder and the abdominal portion of the gastrointestinal tract [2] (with the exception of the inferior part of the anal canal and sigmoid colon) is through the hepatic portal vein.
Constriction of these sphincters reduces or shuts off blood flow through their respective capillary beds. This allows the blood to be diverted to elsewhere in the body. [2] Metarterioles exist in the mesenteric microcirculation, and the name was originally conceived only to define the "thoroughfare channels" between arterioles and venules. In ...
The sphincter can open and close the entrance to the capillary, by which contraction causes blood flow in a capillary to change as vasomotion occurs. [4] [unreliable source?] In some tissues, the entire capillary bed may be bypassed by blood flow through arteriovenous anastomoses or through preferential flow through metarterioles. [2]
Hemolymph fills all of the interior (the hemocoel) of the animal's body and surrounds all cells. It contains hemocyanin, a copper-based protein that turns blue when oxygenated, instead of the iron-based hemoglobin in red blood cells found in vertebrates, giving hemolymph a blue-green color rather than the red color of vertebrate blood. When not ...