III.

ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY

The Cardiovascular System

The heart and circulatory system make up your

cardiovascular system. The heart works as a pump that
pushes blood to the organs, tissues, and cells of your
body. Blood delivers oxygen and nutrients to every cell
and removes the carbon dioxide and waste products
made by those cells. Blood is carried from your heart to
the rest of your body through a complex network of
arteries, arterioles, and capillaries. Blood is returned to
your heart through venules and veins. If all the vessels of
this network in your body were laid end-to-end, they
would extend for about 60,000 miles (more than 96,500
kilometers), which is far enough to circle the earth more
than twice!
The one-way circulatory system carries blood to
all parts of your body. This process of blood flow within
your body is called circulation. Arteries carry oxygen-rich
blood away from your heart, and veins carry oxygen-
poor blood back to your heart.
In pulmonary circulation, though, the roles are
switched. It is the pulmonary artery that brings oxygen-
poor blood into your lungs and the pulmonary vein that brings oxygen-rich blood back to
your heart.
In the diagram, the vessels that carry oxygen-rich blood are colored red, and the
vessels that carry oxygen-poor blood are colored blue.
Twenty major arteries make a path through your tissues, where they branch into
smaller vessels called arterioles. Arterioles further branch into capillaries, the true deliverers
of oxygen and nutrients to your cells. Most capillaries are thinner than a hair. In fact, many
are so tiny, only one blood cell can move through them at a time. Once the capillaries
deliver oxygen and nutrients and pick up carbon dioxide and other waste, they move the
blood back through wider vessels called venules. Venules eventually join to form veins,
which deliver the blood back to your heart to pick up oxygen.

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ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY

THE HEART

The primary function of the heart is to pump

blood through blood vessels to the body's cells.
Imagine a simple machine like a water pump
working for perhaps 70 or more years without
attention and without stopping. Impossible? Yet
this is exactly what the heart can do in our
bodies. The heart is really a muscular bag
surrounding four hollow compartments, with a thin
wall of muscle separating the left hand side from
the right hand side. The muscles in the heart are
very strong because they have to work harder
than any of the other muscles in our body,
pushing the blood to our head and feet continuously.

The blood flow around our body is called

our circulation. The heart connects the two major
portions of the circulation's continuous circuit, the
systemic circulation and the pulmonary
circulation. The blood vessels in the pulmonary
circulation carry the blood through the lungs to pick
up oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide, while the
blood vessels in the systemic circulation carry the
blood throughout the rest of our body

The heart actually has two separate sides,

one designed to pump deoxygenated blood into
the pulmonary circulation where the blood becomes
oxygenated, and one designed to pump the
oxygenated blood into the systemic circulation
where the blood flows throughout the body. Each
side of the heart has two chambers or compartments. The top chamber on each side is

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called the atrium. The right atrium receives incoming deoxygenated blood from the body
and the left atrium receives incoming oxygenated blood from the lungs. The thin-walled
atrium on each side bulges as it fills with blood, and as the lower heart muscle relaxes, the
atrium contracts and squeezes the blood into a second chamber, the thick muscular
ventricle. The ventricle is the pumping chamber that, with each muscular contraction,
pushes the blood forcefully out and into the lungs (right ventricle) and the rest of the body
(left ventricle).

The atrium and ventricle on each side of the heart are separated by tissue flaps
called valves. The structure of these valves prevents blood from flowing backward into the
atrium as the ventricle squeezes blood out. The valve on the right side, between the atrium
and the ventricle, is called the tricuspid valve. The valve on the left side, between the
atrium and the ventricle, is called the bicuspid or mitral valve. There are two other
important valves that help to keep the blood Rowing in the proper direction. These two
valves are located at the two points where blood exits the heart. The pulmonary valve is
located between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery that carries the deoxygenated
blood from the heart to the lungs, and the aortic valve is located between the left ventricle
and the aorta, the major artery that carries the oxygenated blood from the heart to the rest of
the body.

The arteries are the blood vessels that transport blood out of the heart under high
pressure to the tissues. The arterioles are the last small branch of the arterial system
through which blood is released into the capillaries. The capillaries are very small, thin-
walled blood vessels where the exchange of gases, nutrients, and waste takes place
between the cells and the blood. Blood flows with almost no resistance in the larger blood
vessels, but in the arterioles and capillaries, considerable resistance to flow does occur
because these vessels are so small in diameter that the blood must squeeze all its contents
through them. The venules collect blood from the capillaries and gradually feed into
progressively larger veins. The veins transport the blood from the tissues back to the heart.
The walls of the veins are thin and very elastic and can fold or expand to act as a reservoir
for extra blood, if required by the needs of the body.

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 1. Once the deoxygenated red
blood cell (RBC) returns to the heart,
it enters either through the superior
vana cava or the inferior vena cava.
The superior vena cava returns
deoxygenated blood from the upper
part of the body to the heart. The
inferior vena cava returns
deoxygenated blood from the lower
part of the body to the heart. These
large veins lead into the right atrium.

2. The RBC passes through the

tricuspid valve into the right ventricle.

3. The RBC is then pumped through

the pulmonary valve into the pulmonary artery and on to the lungs. There the RBC gives off
carbon dioxide and picks up oxygen.

4. The RBC returns to the heart through a pulmonary vein, enters the left atrium, passes
through the mitral valve, and flows into the left ventricle.

5. The left ventricle pumps the fully oxygenated RBC through the aortic valve, into the aorta,
the body's main artery, and out to the body.

6. From the aorta, the RBC flows into one of the many arteries of the body, through the
arterioles, and then to the capillaries, where the RBC will deliver oxygen and nutrients to the
cells and remove wastes and carbon dioxide. Next it moves through the venules, veins, and
on to the vena cava in a deoxygenated state, and returns to the heart, only to begin its
repetitive journey once again. This whole process has taken approximately 20 seconds!

That single RBC will travel about 950 miles (more than 1500 kilometers) in its brief 4-month
lifetime!

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ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM

The primary function of the respiratory

system is the supply of oxygen to the
blood so this in turn delivers oxygen to
all parts of the body. The respiratory
system does this while breathing is
taking place. During the process of
breathing we inhale oxygen and exhale
carbon dioxide. This exchange of gases
takes place at the alveoli. The average
adult's lungs contain about 600 million of
these spongy, air-filled sacs that are
surrounded by capillaries. The inhaled
oxygen passes into the alveoli and then
diffuses through the capillaries into the
arterial blood. Meanwhile, the waste-rich
blood from the veins releases its carbon
dioxide into the alveoli. The carbon
dioxide follows the same path out of the lungs when you exhale.

When engaged in strenuous activities, the rate and depth of breathing increases in order to
handle the increased concentrations of carbon dioxide in the blood. Breathing is typically an
involuntary process, but can be consciously stimulated or inhibited as in holding your breath.

To put it simply, the principle functions of the respiratory system are:

Ventilate the lungs

Extract oxygen from the air and transfer it to the bloodstream

Excrete carbon dioxide and water vapour

Maintain the acid base of the blood

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Inspired Air

This contains approx: 79% nitrogen; 20% O2 ; 0.04% CO2; Water vapour/Trace Gases

Expired Air

This contains approx: 79% nitrogen; 16% O2; 4% CO; water vapour/Trace Gases

Nostrils/Nasal Cavities

During inhalation, air enters the nostrils and passes into the nasal cavities where foreign
bodies are removed, the air is heated and moisturized before it is brought further into the
body. It is this part of the body that houses our sense of smell.

Sinuses

• The sinuses are small cavities that are lined with mucous membrane within the
bones of the skull.

• A prominent function of the sinuses is to serve as a resonating chamber in speech.

The sinuses are a common site of infection.

Pharynx

The pharynx, or throat carries foods and liquids into the digestive tract and also carries air
into the respiratory tract.

Larynx
The larynx or voice box is located between the pharynx and trachea. It is the location of the
Adam's apple, which in reality is the thyroid gland and houses the vocal cords.

Trachea

The trachea or windpipe is a tube that extends from the lower edge of the larynx to the
upper part of the chest and conducts air between the larynx and the lungs.

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Lungs
The lungs are the organ in which the exchange of gasses takes place. The lungs are made
up of extremely thin and delicate tissues. At the lungs, the bronchi subdivides, becoming
progressively smaller as they branch through the lung tissue, until they reach the tiny air
sacks of the lungs called the alveoli. It is at the alveoli that gasses enter and leave the blood
stream.

Bronchi

• There are several divisions of the bronchi within each lobe of the lung.

• First are the lobar bronchi (three in the right lung and two in the left lung). Lobar
bronchi divide into segmental bronchi (10 on the right and 8 on the left), which are
the structures identified when choosing the most effective postural drainage position
for a given patient.

• Segmental bronchi then divide into subsegmental bronchi. These bronchi are
surrounded by connective tissue that contains arteries, lymphatics, and nerves. The
subsegmental bronchi then branch into bronchioles, which have no cartilage in their
walls. Their patency depends entirely on the elastic recoil of the surrounding smooth
muscle and on the alveolar pressure.

Bronchioles
The bronchioles contain submucosal glands, which produce mucus that covers the inside
lining of the airways.

Alveoli
The alveoli are tiny air sacks that are enveloped in a network of capillaries. It is here that the
air we breathe is diffused into the blood, and waste gasses are returned for elimination.

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