The circulatory system

Transcript of the video: http://www.brightstorm.com/science/biology/thehuman-body/circulatory-system/ The circulatory system is the major transport system of the body and its task is to transport the oxygen your body needs, the nutrients your body needs, things like hormones, the immune system cells things like antibodies as well as collect all the wastes that are being produced by your cells especially things like carbon dioxide.

Photo copied from: http://webschoolsolutions.com/patts/systems/heart.htm Now there's three major parts to the circulatory system; there's the blood, the blood vessels and the heart. The blood contains things like the liquid plasma, that is the non cellular part of the blood, there's the red blood cells, the white blood cells and then these cell parts called platelets that are involved in blood clotting. There's the blood vessels, these are the tubes that the blood is actually going through, there's the arteries, veins and capillaries. Now it's very easy and common for people to get confused about the difference between arteries and veins because a lot of times people say what the arteries have oxygen in them the veins don't and most of the times that's true but not all the time. The proper way to distinguish the two is what direction is the blood going in. In arteries they carry blood away from the heart did you notice the a there while veins carry blood back to the heart so again most of the time yes the arteries are carrying oxygenated blood but if you're sending blood from the heart to the lungs, you don't do that to get that to bring oxygen to the lungs, you get it you send blood away from the heart to the lungs to get the oxygen so that's the one case where arteries will carry deoxygenated blood while the veins that are coming back from the lungs to the heart there are the ones that are carrying lots of oxygen. 1

Now capillaries are very thin walled and typically one cell thick and that allows the easy exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide as well as the other nutrients with the cells that capillaries are going through and they are what connect ultimately arteries to veins. You can think of this as arteries are like freeways or highways as are veins, capillaries are residential streets. That is where you can park your car you can get out of your car and people, can climb into the car, you don't try to park in and exchange passengers in the middle of in let's say freeway just would not be a wise idea. Now the heart pumps the blood and I'm going to go through the structure of the heart more materially but first I want to just mention a couple of concepts.

Photo copied from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circulatory_system The first is something called, the systemic circuit versus the pulmonary circuit. The systemic circuit, is that circuit of blood from arteries to capillaries to veins and back to the heart that is carrying blood to the body, to your brain to your muscles et cetera and then it after it delivers its nutrients it gathers up waste and returns to the heart. The pulmonary circuit is the arteries, capillaries and veins that go off to the lungs, so if we take a look at this diagram of the heart over here you can see on the diagram what looks to be the left, that's actually remember the patients right, this is something that screwed me up when I first started studying the heart and that was I looked at the diagram and I said right atrium and I said no that's on the left, it's the patients' right so a lot of times when you're looking at this go okay so on the right hand side do you notice how everything is kind of this darkish purply blue, that's a common symbol used in diagrams in textbooks to indicate that this is low oxygen blood so blood is collected from the upper body from something called the superior vena cava and from the lower body by a blood vessel called the inferior vena cava. These are two very large veins that collect blood that is low in oxygen has been used up by the rest of the body doing its normal activities. It comes into this entrance chamber of the heart on the right side, these entrance chambers are called atria so the right atrium collects the blood and squeezes it into this lower chamber, the lower bigger chambers are called ventricles. The right ventricle when it squeezes the blood it pumps the blood out this pulmonary trunk to the pulmonary arteries off to the lungs. In the lungs, oxygen is absorbed from the lungs, carbon dioxide is dropped off 2

and we have our nicely bright red blood that we turns through the pulmonary veins and now it's oxygenated in the these veins, those are the only veins that are oxygenated. These pulmonary veins deliver the blood to an entrance chamber again it's a vein sorry again it's an atrium but this time it's on the left side, the patients' left, the left atrium pumps the blood into the left ventricle that left ventricle is the most muscular of the 4 chambers that left ventricle when it squeezes, it pushes the blood out the aorta which is the biggest artery in the body squeezing that blood out from the aorta every other artery branches off ultimately some going off to the upper body and then the aorta dips down behind the heart to feed the lower body so the aorta is the beginning of the systemic circuit the vena cavas are the end of the systemic circuit. The pulmonary arteries are the beginning of the pulmonary circuit, the pulmonary veins are the end of the pulmonary circuit. Just so you know, these weird white things here, those are valves they're one way doors that close to prevent back flow so that when the right and left ventricle squeeze together whoosh they blow open these valves here which are called semilunar valves but as they squeeze, the valves that led backwards, they slam shut and that's the first sound of a sound beat the first sound. When the ventricles are relaxed, the pressure inside here drops the semilunar valves close that's the second sound of the heartbeat so when you're hearing the sound of the heartbeat the first sound is the atrioventicular valves slamming shut the second sound are the semilunar valves slamming shut. I have heard some kids tell me that it is the sound of the heart squeezing, if you've ever wondered what the squeezing of a muscle would sound like put your ear to your biceps and squeeze all you hear is your shirt moving alright? So now that you know the anatomy of the heart and the functions of the circulatory system you're good to go. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Exercise 1 Diseases of the circulatory system Arteriosclerosis, hypertension, aortic aneurysm, rheumatic fever and congenital heart disorders are common diseases of the circulatory system. Use these terms to fill in the following gaps. Diseases of the circulatory system According to the American Heart Association, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Because of its vastness and critical nature, it is one of the systems of the body most prone to disease. One of the most common diseases of the circulatory system is 1) __________________, in which the fatty deposits in the arteries causes the walls to stiffen and thicken the walls. The causes are too much fat, cholesterol and calcium. This can restrict blood flow or in severe cases stop it all together, resulting in a heart attack or stroke. Another circulatory disease is 2) _______________ commonly called high blood pressure causes the heart to work harder and can lead to such complications as a heart attack, a stroke, or kidney failure. An 3) ______________ occurs when the aorta is damaged and starts to bulge or eventually tear, which can cause severe internal bleeding. This weakness can be 3

present at birth or the result of atherosclerosis, obesity, high blood pressure or a combination of these conditions. Other disorders of the circulatory system result from damage or birth defects. 4) _____________________ can attack the valves that control the flow of blood through the heart. Incomplete development of the heart or blood vessels before birth may result in defects known as 5) ___________________________.
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Exercise 2 Fill in the gaps using the correct prepositions. RESPIRATORY DISEASES Example History (doctor, patient) Can you tell me what brought you ______ hospital today? Well I think I have a chest infection; Ive been getting very breathless and bringing ____ green stuff. Alright, has this happened to you _______? Do you usually cough up something? Yes, most of the time I cough up something every day. Its not normally green though. I usually have to go to the doctor a few times a year and get told that I have a chest infection. I see. Tell me more _______ what you cough up. How much do you cough up? I say about a cup full of clear mucus every day, usually _____ the morning. Like I said before, it sometimes turns green and then I go to the doctors. Green you said? Have you ever coughed up any blood? No, never. You said you were breathless....Can you give me an idea _____ how bad the breathlessness is? Not _____ bad. Usually Im not breathless but recently Ive been unable to get _______ myself. Ive been finding it difficult to do the shopping. And can you tell me how quickly this came _____? How long ago were you your normal self? It came _____ suddenly, ______ a few days. I was able to get ______ as normal last week. Have you had any pain _____ that? Yes, a little right here _____ my left side. Its sharp when I breathe in. Ok, I see. Do you suffer _____ any wheeze at all? Sometimes I get a bit wheezy but only when my breathlessness is really bad. And are you _____ any medication? I sometimes take paracetamol ____ pain but not often. I have a blue inhaler (salbutamol) for my chest but nothing else regularly. Ive been taking antibiotics and steroids _______ in hospital. Ok, I see. Do you have any other health problems, either now or ____the past? No, just the chest infections in the past. Any health problems that run _____ the family? No, not that Im aware. My mother has angina. Ok, and do you smoke? Drink alcohol? Take drugs? Yes, I do smoke. I have done _____ the past 20 years about one full pack ____ day. I dont drink much just the odd glass of wine and drugs have never interested me; Ive avoided them. Ok, and do you have any worries _______ your health? What do you feel about your condition? 5

_____ the whole, it doesnt bother me, but Im afraid it will get worse. I know smoking is bad and cancer is a worry Ive tried to give ____ in the past but I just find it really difficult. ____ the moment though, my health doesnt really bother me just the odd chest infection. I just dont want to end ____ like my mother who needs the doctors a lot. I see, well lets talk about that....

Exercise 3 Based on the dialogue you just read, try to choose the right words in the case summary below. Case summary Here we have a 55yr old woman who presented to hospital with increasing/decreasing shortness of breath and a change in character of her usual smokers cough/laugh. She resorts/reports coughing more frequently and a change in the character of her blood/sputum which has changed from clear, serous fluid to a thick green mucus over the past few days. This has been accompanied/attributed by a right/left sided pleuritic chest pain. Normally, she would cough on/up about half a cup of unclear/clear fluid in the morning. She takes salbutamol for arrhythmia/breathlessness when it gets bad, but reports not taking anything regularly/occasionally. She has not coughed up any blood. She has smoked 20 cigarettes per day for the last 20 years (20 pack year) and has the occasional/frequent glass of wine. There is no relevant/relative family history. Based on the history, this woman has presented with a lower/upper respiratory tract infection on a background of bronchiectasis.