CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM

PRESENTED BY:
DR. UMBREEN BANO
 INTRODUCTION

• Cardiovascular system is the transport system of

the body, through which the nutrients are
conveyed to places where these are utilized, and
the metabolites (waste products) are conveyed
to appropriate places from where these are
excerted.
• The conveying medium is the blood, which flows
in tubular channels called blood vessels.
• The circulation is maintained by the central
pumping organ called the heart.
 COMPONENTS:

1. Heart:
• It is a four chambered muscular organ which pumps blood to various parts of the
body.
• Each half of the heart has a receiving chamber called atrium, and a pumping
chamber called ventricle.
2. Arteries:
• These are distributing channels which carry blood away from the heart.
• The minute branches which are just visible to naked eye are called arterioles.
3. Veins:
• These are draining channels which carry blood from different parts of the body
back to the heart.
• The veins are formed by tributaries.
• The small veins (venules) join together to form larger veins, which in turn unite to
form great veins and called venae cavae.
4. Capillaries:
• These are networks of microscopic vessels which connect arterioles with the
venules.
• They come to intimate contact with the tissue for a free exchange of nutrients
and metabolites across their walls.
• The metabolites are partly drained by the capillaries and partly by lymphatics.
 HEART
• Is a roughly cone-shaped hollow muscular
organ.
• It is about 10 cm long and is about the size
of the owner’s fist.
• It weighs about 225 g in women and is
heavier in men (about 310 g).
• The heart lies in the thoracic cavity in the
mediastinum (the space between the
lungs), obliquely, a little more to the left
than the right, and presents a base above,
and an apex below.
• The apex is about 9 cm to the left of the
midline at the level of the 5th intercostal
space, i.e. a little below the nipple and
slightly nearer the midline.
• The base extends to the level of the 2nd
rib.
 ORGANS ASSOCIATED WITH THE
HEART
• Inferiorly – the apex rests on the
central tendon of the diaphragm
• Superiorly – the great blood
vessels, i.e. the aorta, superior
vena cava, pulmonary artery and
pulmonary veins
• Posteriorly – the oesophagus,
trachea, left and right bronchus,
descending aorta, inferior vena
cava and thoracic vertebrae
Laterally – the lungs – the left
lung overlaps the left side of the
heart
• Anteriorly – the sternum, ribs and
intercostal muscles.
 STRUCTURE OF THE HEART WALL
• The heart wall is made up of three layers,
endocardium, myocardium and epicardium.
• The endocardium is the smooth thin
membrane that lines the inner surface of the
heart chambers.
• The myocardium is the heart muscle itself,
and varies in thickness depending on its
location, being thin in the atria and thick in
the ventricles.
• The pericardium is three layers of fibrous
connective tissue that keeps the heart in
place, limits its motion, prevents it from over
expanding and reduces the friction as it
beats between it and its surrounding
structures.
• Oxygenated blood from the heart is
circulated around the whole body via a
network of arteries.
• Deoxygenated blood is returned to the heart
via a network of veins.
 INTERIOR OF THE HEART
• The heart is divided into
left and right sides by the
muscular interventricular
septum which is located
between the base and the
apex of the heart.
• It runs obliquely through
the heart, separating the
right and left atria and
the right and left
ventricles.
• Each side is divided by an
atrioventricular valve into the
upper atrium and the ventricle
below.
• The atrioventricular valves are
formed by double folds of
endocardium strengthened by a
little fibrous tissue.
• The right atrioventricular valve
(tricuspid valve) has three flaps or
cusps and the left atrioventricular
valve (mitral valve) has two cusps.
Flow of blood in the heart is one
way; blood enters the heart via
the atria and passes into the
ventricles below.
 FLOW OF BLOOD THROUGH THE
HEART
• The two largest veins of the body, the
superior and inferior venae cavae, empty
their contents into the right atrium.
• This blood passes via the right
atrioventricular valve into the right ventricle,
and from there is pumped into the
pulmonary artery or trunk (the only artery in
the body which carries deoxygenated blood).
• The opening of the pulmonary artery is
guarded by the pulmonary valve, formed by
three semilunar cusps. This valve prevents
the backflow of blood into the right ventricle
when the ventricular muscle relaxes.
• After leaving the heart the pulmonary artery
divides into left and right pulmonary arteries,
which carry the venous blood to the lungs
where exchange of gases takes place: carbon
dioxide is excreted and oxygen is absorbed.
• Oxygeneted blood returns to the left atrium
by means of four pulmonary veins
 ARTERIAL SUPPLY
• The heart is supplied with
arterial blood by the right and
left coronary arteries, which
branch from the aorta
immediately distal to the
aortic valve
• Venous drainage
• Most of the venous blood is
collected into a number of
cardiac veins that join to form
the coronary sinus, which
opens into the right atrium.
The remainder passes directly
into the heart chambers
through little venous channels.
 NERVE SUPPLY TO THE HEART
• The vagus nerves (parasympathetic) supply
mainly the SA and AV nodes and atrial muscle.
• Parasympathetic stimulation reduces the rate at
which impulses are produced, decreasing the rate
and force of the heartbeat.
• The sympathetic nerves supply the SA and AV
nodes and the myocardium of atria and
ventricles.
• Sympathetic stimulation increases the rate and
force of the heartbeat.
 Conducting system of the heart
• The heart possesses the property of
autorhythmicity, which means it generates its
own electrical impulses and beats
independently of nervous or hormonal
control, i.e. it is not reliant on external
mechanisms to initiate each heartbeat.
• However, it is supplied with both
sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic
nerve fibres, which increase and decrease
respectively the intrinsic heart rate. In
addition, the heart responds to a number of
circulating hormones, including adrenaline
(epinephrine) and thyroxine.
• Small groups of specialised neuromuscular
cells in the myocardium initiate and conduct
impulses, causing coordinated and
synchronised contraction of the heart muscle
• SA node
• AV node
• AV bundle
• AV bundle branches
• Purkinji fibers