17.1: Introduction
- Page ID
- 53775
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The cardiovascular system is composed of the heart and the blood vessels. The main function of this body system is to distribute materials throughout the body, including oxygen and energy-rich nutrients. The heart is the muscular pump of the cardiovascular system and the blood vessels are a delivery system. To understand how the heart functions, it is necessary to also study the large blood vessels that deliver blood directly into the heart and carry blood immediately out of the heart. In the cardiovascular system, there are two major categories of large vessels: arteries and veins. Arteries ("a" for "away") carry blood away from the heart. Veins carry blood toward the heart.
When considering blood flow, the amount of oxygen in the blood is of great importance. Oxygen, acquired from the lungs, is transported in the blood and used by body cells to conduct cellular respiration, a metabolic process that makes the body's main energy molecule: ATP. ATP is such an important source of energy in the body that if there is not enough oxygen to make ATP, an individual will die.
When showing blood flow in anatomical diagrams, vessels that are colored blue carry oxygen-poor blood and vessels that are colored red carry oxygen-rich blood. Most of the time, arteries are shown as red in anatomical diagrams because they usually carry oxygen-rich blood (exceptions: the pulmonary trunk and the pulmonary arteries that carry oxygen-poor blood from the heart to the lungs). Most of the time, veins are shown as blue in anatomical diagrams because they usually carry oxygen-poor blood (exception: the pulmonary veins that carry oxygen-rich blood from the lungs to the heart).
Attributions
- "Anatomy and Physiology Lab Reference" by Laird C Sheldahl, OpenOregonEducational Resources, Mt. Hood Community College is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
- "Heart Anatomy" by Dongho Kim is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0