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A plot of a system's pressure versus volume has long been used to measure the work done by the system and its efficiency. This analysis can be applied to heat engines and pumps, including the heart. A considerable amount of information on cardiac performance can be determined from the pressure vs. volume plot (pressure–volume diagram).
The other division of the circulatory system is the systemic circulation that begins with receiving the oxygenated blood from the pulmonary circulation into the left atrium. From the atrium the oxygenated blood enters the left ventricle where it is pumped out to the rest of the body, returning as deoxygenated blood back to the pulmonary ...
The systemic circulation is a circuit loop that delivers oxygenated blood from the left heart to the rest of the body, and returns deoxygenated blood back to the right heart via large veins known as the venae cavae. The systemic circulation can also be defined as two parts – a macrocirculation and a microcirculation.
Vascular resistance is the resistance that must be overcome for blood to flow through the circulatory system.The resistance offered by the systemic circulation is known as the systemic vascular resistance or may sometimes be called by another term total peripheral resistance, while the resistance caused by the pulmonary circulation is known as the pulmonary vascular resistance.
The pulmonary and the systemic circulations are the two parts of the vasculature. The pulmonary circulation system consists of the network of blood vessels from the right heart to the lungs and back to the left heart. The rest of the blood flow loop is called systemic circulation system.
Several parameters can be calculated for each loop (e.g. end-diastolic pressure, end-systolic pressure, ejection and filling intervals, contractility index, stroke volume, and ejection fraction). More importantly, other interesting parameters are derived from series of loops obtained under changing conditions.
Mean systemic pressure increases if there is an increase in blood volume or if there is a decrease in venous compliance (where blood is shifted from the veins to the arteries). An increase in mean systemic pressure is reflected in a shift of the vascular function curve to the right.
Venous return (VR) is the flow of blood back to the heart. Under steady-state conditions, venous return must equal cardiac output (Q), when averaged over time because the cardiovascular system is essentially a closed loop. Otherwise, blood would accumulate in either the systemic or pulmonary circulations.