Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
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).
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.
In the systemic circulation the return is of deoxygenated blood from the organs and tissues of the body, and in the pulmonary circulation the pulmonary veins return oxygenated blood from the lungs to the heart. 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]
Blood is 92% water by weight and the rest of blood is composed of protein, nutrients, electrolytes, wastes, and dissolved gases. Depending on the health of an individual, the blood viscosity can vary (i.e., anemia causing relatively lower concentrations of protein, high blood pressure an increase in dissolved salts or lipids, etc.). [30]
A capillary is a small blood vessel, from 5 to 10 micrometres in diameter, and is part of the microcirculation system. Capillaries are microvessels and the smallest blood vessels in the body. They are composed of only the tunica intima (the innermost layer of an artery or vein), consisting of a thin wall of simple squamous endothelial cells. [2]
An arteriole is a small-diameter blood vessel in the microcirculation that extends and branches out from an artery and leads to capillaries. [ 1 ] Arterioles have muscular walls (usually only one to two layers of smooth muscle cells ) and are the primary site of vascular resistance .
A.D. 2024—The United States. Twenty-seven degrees in a Port-A-Jon, the seat freezing my ass. I’m in the dark with a little flashlight. Chemically treated feces and urine splash up onto my anus.
The externa, alternatively known as the tunica adventitia, is composed of collagen fibers and elastic tissue—with the largest arteries containing vasa vasorum, small blood vessels that supply the walls of large blood vessels. [3] Most of the layers have a clear boundary between them, however the tunica externa has a boundary that is ill-defined.