Cardiovascular System Overview
This substance carries oxygen, nutrients, and waste products throughout the body.
What is blood?
This part of the heart points toward the left hip and rests on the diaphragm.
What is the apex?
These valves are open when the atria contract and closed when the ventricles contract.
What are the AV valves?
This node is known as the heart’s pacemaker because it starts each heartbeat.
What is the SA node?
These blood vessels carry blood away from the heart.
What are arteries?
These two organs work together to pump blood through the body and exchange gases.
What are the heart and lungs?
These chambers of the heart receive blood returning to the heart.
What are the atria?
This term refers to the contraction of the ventricles, while this term refers to their relaxation.
What are systole and diastole?
This part of an EKG represents the depolarization of the ventricles before they contract.
What is the QRS complex?
The walls of these vessels are only one cell layer thick, allowing for the diffusion of gases and nutrients.
What are capillaries?
This part of the cardiovascular system is responsible for transporting oxygen-rich blood from the heart to the body.
What are arteries?
These tendinous cords prevent the flaps of the AV valves from blowing upward into the atria during ventricular contraction.
What are chordae tendineae?
The heart is called this because the left side pumps blood to the body, and the right side pumps blood to the lungs.
What is a "double pump"?
The impulse that starts at the SA node travels to this node before spreading to the ventricles.
What is the AV node?
These veins return deoxygenated blood from the body to the right atrium of the heart.
What are the superior and inferior vena cavae?
This blood vessel type is primarily responsible for maintaining blood pressure and directing blood flow by adjusting its diameter.
What are arterioles?
This layer of the heart wall is composed of thick bundles of cardiac muscle that contract to pump blood.
What is the myocardium?
This artery carries deoxygenated blood from the heart to the lungs.
What is the pulmonary artery?
The electrical impulses responsible for the heart's contraction travel through these fibers to cause the ventricles to contract.
What are Purkinje fibers?
This system of blood vessels carries nutrient-rich blood from the digestive organs to the liver for processing.
What is hepatic portal circulation?
XThis serous membrane secretes fluid to reduce friction as the heart beats.
What is the pericardium?
This septum separates the left and right sides of the heart and prevents the mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood.
What is the interventricular septum?
GThis system of blood vessels supplies oxygen and nutrients to the heart muscle itself.
What is coronary circulation?
This wave on an EKG shows the repolarization of the ventricles.
What is the T wave?
This structure connects arteries at the base of the brain, ensuring multiple pathways for blood to reach brain tissue.
What is the Circle of Willis?