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Though veins might make it appear as such, human blood is never naturally blue. [3] The blue appearance of surface veins is caused mostly by the scattering of blue light away from the outside of venous tissue if the vein is at 0.5 mm deep or more. Veins and arteries appear similar when skin is removed and are seen directly. [4] [5]
Almost 70% of the blood in the body is in the veins, and almost 75% of this blood is in the small veins and venules. [7] All of the systemic veins are tributaries of the largest veins, the superior and inferior vena cava, which empty the oxygen-depleted blood into the right atrium of the heart. [8]
Oxygen-poor blood enters the right side of the heart through two large veins. Oxygen-rich blood from the lungs enters through the pulmonary veins on the left side of the heart into the aorta and then reaches the rest of the body. The capillaries are responsible for allowing the blood to receive oxygen through tiny air sacs in the lungs.
The pulmonary circulation is the part of the circulatory system in which oxygen-depleted blood is pumped away from the heart, via the pulmonary artery, to the lungs and returned, oxygenated, to the heart via the pulmonary vein. Oxygen-deprived blood from the superior and inferior vena cava enters the right atrium of the heart and flows through ...
Hypoxemia is usually defined in terms of reduced partial pressure of oxygen (mm Hg) in arterial blood, but also in terms of reduced content of oxygen (ml oxygen per dl blood) or percentage saturation of hemoglobin (the oxygen-binding protein within red blood cells) with oxygen, which is either found singly or in combination. [2] [5]
As part of the pulmonary circulation they carry oxygenated blood back to the heart, as opposed to the veins of the systemic circulation which carry deoxygenated blood. [ citation needed ] By definition, a vein is a blood vessel that carries blood to the heart, whether oxygenated or deoxygenated.
Mean blood pressure drops over the whole circulation, although most of the fall occurs along the small arteries and arterioles. [35] Gravity affects blood pressure via hydrostatic forces (e.g., during standing), and valves in veins, breathing, and pumping from contraction of skeletal muscles also influence blood pressure in veins. [32]
Arterial blood carries oxygen from inhaled air to all of the cells of the body, and venous blood carries carbon dioxide, a waste product of metabolism by cells, to the lungs to be exhaled. However, one exception includes pulmonary arteries, which contain the most deoxygenated blood in the body, while the pulmonary veins contain oxygenated blood.