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16 Cardiovascular System
If you have ever planted a
garden of signi cant size, you have probably experienced the impor-
tance of an irrigation system. At its simplest, an irrigation system is
a network of channels or furrows that deliver needed water from
one main source to the roots of all the garden’s plants. Like an
irrigation system, the body’s blood vessels form an extensive
network of “irrigation channels” to deliver needed uid — in
this case the homeostatically maintained blood — to all the
body’s cells. In fact, this delivery system is probably the most
phenomenal irrigation network imaginable. Emanating
from a muscular pump, the heart, these vessels form an
extensive system of tubular roadways that carry nourishing
blood away from the heart and toward the tissues. ey
then make a “U-turn” through small permeable, exchange
vessels, the capillaries, which feed all the body’s cells. Here,
life-supporting molecules, such as water, oxygen, glucose,
and amino acids are delivered to the cells, and the by-products
of cellular metabolism are picked up from the surrounding
tissue uid. e blood then ows back to the heart through
a series of return vessels, the veins, that parallel the delivery
vessels. is circular pattern of ow to and from the heart
constitutes the vascular (blood vessel) component of the
cardiovascular (circulatory) system. is irrigation network
is so impressive, that if all the blood vessels of the body were
placed end-to-end they would extend 25,000 miles (96,500 km),
which is approximately two times the equatorial circumference
of the earth.
e irrigation network of blood vessels are of no value without
a pump. e heart is the dual, self-regulating pump that generates
the pressure to drive the blood through this impressive irrigation
network. It pumps the blood through two cycles — a pulmonary
cycle to pick up oxygen from the lungs and a systemic cycle to deliver
the oxygen to all the cells of the body. Soon a er conception, and up
until death, the heart pumps blood. It averages approximately 70 beats
per minute, or about 3 billion contractions in an average lifetime.
e nal aspect of the cardiovascular system is the accessory drainage
network — the lymphatics. ese small vein-like vessels insure that the
cardiac return equals the cardiac output. is chapter will depict the anatomy
of this amazing muscular pump and the vascular and lymphatic roadways that
distribute the blood throughout the body.
Find more information
about the cardiovascular
system in
REALANATOMY
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