In this micro-lecture, we discuss the venous and arterial circulation system. Enrolled students have unlimited access to a rich library of learning materials such as this.
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In this micro-lecture we’re going to talk about the venous and arterial system. Now, as you know, the body is made up of a wide range of vessels starting with the arteries, and finishing with the veins. So, let’s start by summarizing what these vessels actually do. So, the arteries are larger, stronger vessels that carry oxygenated blood away from the heart under high amounts of pressure.
So, when that left ventricle pumps, it pushes oxygenated blood around the system, around the circulation, and it pumps it to all the tissues, and all the organs, and eventually, once the organs have been oxygenated, the blood goes back to the right side of the heart through the venous system.
So, the artery is the largest vessel that carries oxygenated blood. Then it moves into … As it gets closer, and closer to the tissues, it moves into smaller vessels that come off of the arteries called arterials. And then it gets even smaller and ends up in capillary network. So, it’s where the capillary networks are, which is where the oxygenation takes place.
Oxygen is offloaded into the tissues, and carbon dioxide, and other waste products of metabolism are loaded into the deoxygenated blood. This vessel then turns into a venule, and then into the larger vein, and up to the heart, and wherever it needs to go to be excreted.
So, arteries and veins are the largest vessels. The next level down is venules and arterials. And the one in the middle.
Really, the powerhouse of all these other capillaries. Now, if you take a look at this image here, so, if you look at this image up here you will see that the arteries are made up of a number of layers.
These layers are called tunica adventitia, tunica media, tunica intima. So, the vessel that you just saw that carries blood under high pressure, is broken down into a layer of connective tissue, which is designed to connect other organs and other tissues to this vessel.
An external elastic lamella, or lamella, which is designed to be an intermediary type of tissue between the media and adventitia. And then you’ve got the internal elastic, and the basement membrane, and the endothelium. So, really the endothelium, endo means within. So, endo is the real smooth type of tissue that is the external part of the circulation of the arteries.
For more information about this lecture on Venous and Arterial Circulation, paramedic/EMT/first responder/basic life support/advanced life support training courses and becoming a Medic / Paramedic contact the Australian Paramedical College today:
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