Blood Basics
This term describes the overall makeup of blood, including plasma and formed elements.
What is the composition of blood?
These three factors—vessel diameter, blood viscosity, and vessel length—interfere with the movement of blood.
What is resistance to blood flow?
This zone is responsible for filtering and warming air.
What is the conducting zone?
The specific journey blood takes from the right atrium, leaves through the right ventricle, through the lungs, and back to the left atrium.
What is the pulmonary circuit?
Unlike skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle cells are uniquely shaped in this way, allowing them to interlock and contract as a unit.
What is branched?
This cell has a Wspecific biconcave shape allows for a high surface-area-to-volume ratio, optimizing gas exchange.
What is a red blood cell?
This structure in the heart is responsible for pumping blood to the rest of the body.
What is the left ventricle?
This is the physical process of oxygen moving into the blood and carbon dioxide moving out at the alveolar and tissue levels.
What is gas exchange?
To get from the left atrium to the left ventricle, blood passes through this valve, which is also known as the bicuspid valve.
What is the mitral valve?
This structure, often called the "windpipe," is the main tube air must pass through after the larynx before entering the bronchi of the lungs.
What is the trachea?
This process of blood cell formation involves connections between the skeletal, circulatory, and endocrine systems.
What is hematopoiesis?
These structures prevent the backflow of blood, ensuring it moves in only one direction through the heart.
What are heart valves?
This dome-shaped muscle contracts to change the volume and pressure of the thoracic cavity.
What is the diaphragm?
After air passes through the trachea, it must enter these two large tubes that lead into each specific lung.
What are primary bronchi?
Hemoglobin is able to readily bind with and transport oxygen thanks to the presence of this specific ion.
What is iron?
Making up about 55% of blood composition, this straw-colored liquid acts as the medium for transporting nutrients, hormones, and waste.
What is plasma?
This specialized part of the heart's intrinsic conduction system is responsible for initiating the action potential that causes the heart to beat.
What is the Sinoatrial (SA) node?
This specific term refers to the amount of air that moves in and out of the lungs during a single, normal breath.
What is tidal volume?
These are the microscopic vessels where oxygen and carbon dioxide are actually swapped between the blood and the air sacs.
What are the alveolar capillaries?
This specific structure, located above the trachea, acts as the "voice box" and is indicated by the arrow in your test's respiratory diagram.
What is the larynx?
In a lab scenario, a patient’s red blood cells are found to have neither A nor B antigens on their surface.
What is Type O blood?
This large vessel is the main artery that carries oxygen-rich blood away from the left ventricle to the rest of the body.
What is the aorta?
Due to the position of the heart, the human lungs are asymmetrical; the left lung contains this many lobes, while the right lung contains three.
What is two?
This is the name of the valve blood must pass through as it exits the right ventricle to head toward the lungs.
What is the pulmonary (semilunar) valve?
This is the specific method of transport (movement from high to low concentration) used for gas exchange in both the lungs and tissues.
What is simple diffusion?