The Circulatory System

Below is a free term papers summary of the paper "The Circulatory System." If you sign up, you can be reading the rest of this term papers in under two minutes. Registered users should login to view this term paper.

Term Paper Title	The Circulatory System
# of Words	1315
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	5.26

The Circulatory System

The Circulatory System

     The circulatory system in anatomy and physiology is the course taken by
the blood through the arteries, capillaries, and veins and back to the heart. In
humans and the higher vertebrates, the heart is made up of four chambers the
right and left auricles, or atria, and the right and left ventricles. The right
side of the heart pumps oxygen-poor blood from the cells of the body back to the
lungs for new oxygen; the left side of the heart receives blood rich in oxygen
from the lungs and pumps it through the arteries to the various parts of the
body. Circulation begins early in fetal life. It is estimated that a given
portion of the blood completes its course of circulation in approximately 30
seconds.

     Pulmonary circulation is where the blood from the entire body is
transported to the right auricle through two large veins. The superior vena cava
and the inferior vena cava. When the right auricle contracts, it forces the
blood through an opening into the right ventricle. Contraction of this ventricle
drives the blood to the lungs. Blood is prevented from returning into the
auricle by the tricuspid valve, which completely closes during contraction of
the ventricle. In its passage through the lungs, the blood is oxygenated, that
is, then it is  brought back to the heart by the four pulmonary veins, which
enter the left auricle. When this chamber contracts, blood is forced into the
left ventricle and then by ventricular contraction into the aorta. The bicuspid,
or mitral, valve prevents the blood from flowing back into the auricle, and the
semilunar valves at the beginning of the aorta stop it from flowing back into
the ventricle. Similar valves are present in the pulmonary artery.

     The aorta divides into a number of main branches, which in turn divide
into smaller ones until the entire body is supplied by an elaborately branching
series of blood vessels. The smallest arteries divide into a fine network of
still more minute vessels, the capillaries, which have extremely thin walls;
thus, the blood is enabled to come into close relation with the fluids and
tissues of the body. In the capillaries, the blood performs three functions then
it releases its oxygen to the tissues, it furnishes to the body cells the
nutrients and other essential substances that it carries, and it takes up waste
products from the tissues. The capillaries then unite to form small veins. The
veins, in turn, unite with each other to form la...

This is not the end of the termpaper! Register below to see the complete version of this term paper.

Membership Plans	Credit Card	Check

1 month membership

3 month membership (You Save 50%)

6 month membership (You Save 67%)

Copyright © 2002-2007 Mid Term Papers. All rights reserved. This term papers website is used for research purposes only.
If you have forgotten your username or password, please click here.
If you like to cancel your account, please click here.

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22