Cardio-Vascular

System Physiology

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 Introduction

 Every cell relies on the surrounding

interstitial fluid for oxygen, nutrients,
and waste disposal.
 The composition of the interstitial fluid
is kept stable through continuous
exchange between the peripheral
tissues and the blood stream.
 Yet the blood can help maintain
homeostasis only as long as it stays in
motion.
 Thus all the functions of the
 Circuits

 Blood flows through a network of

blood vessels that extend between the
heart and the peripheral tissues.
 Those blood vessels can be subdivided
into a pulmonary circuit, which
carries blood to and from the gas
exchange surface of the lungs, and the
systemic circuit, which transport
blood to and from the rest of the body.
 Each circuit begins and ends at the
heart, and the blood travels through
these circuits in sequence.
Arteries and Veins

 Arteries, or efferent vessels,

carry blood away from the heart;
veins, or afferent vessels, return
blood to the heart. Capillaries are
small, thin-walled vessels between
the smallest arteries and veins.
Capillaries are called exchange
vessels, because their thin walls
permit the exchange of the nutrients,
dissolved gases, and waste products
 THE HEART

 This muscular organ beats

approximately 100,000 times each
day, pumping roughly 8000 liters of
blood.
 Despite its impressive workload, it is
a small organ, roughly in the size of
a clenched fist.
 It has four chambers, each two are
associated with each circuit.
 The right atrium receives blood from
the systemic circuit and passes it to
 FACTS

 When the heart beats, the atria

contract first, then the ventricles
contract.
The two ventricles
contract at the same time
and eject equal volumes of
blood into the pulmonary
and systemic circuits.
 The skeleton of the
heart
 The skeleton of the heart consists of
a plate of fibrous connective tissue
between the atria and the ventricles.
 This connective tissue plate forms;
FIBROUS RINGS; around the
atrioventricular and semilunar valves
and provide a solid support for them.
 The fibrous ring also serves as
electrical insulation between the
atria and the ventricles and provides a
rigid site for attachment for the
cardiac muscle.
 Cardiac Muscle

 Important Physiological Features of

cardiac muscle cells Include: 
 1. Cardiac muscle cells are elongated
branching cells containing one or two
centrally located nuclei.
 Cardiac muscle cells contain actin and
myosin filaments organized to form
sarcomeres, which join end to end to
form myofibrils.
 The actin and myosin filaments are
responsible for muscle contraction.
 Cardiac Muscle

 2. Depolarizations of cardiac muscle

cell membrane are not carried from the
surface of the cell to the sarcoplasmic
reticulum as efficiently as they are in
skeletal muscles, and calcium must
diffuse a greater distance from the
sarcoplasmic reticulum to the actin
myofilaments.
 This loose association is partly
responsible for the slow onset of
contraction and the prolonged
contraction phase in cardiac
muscle.
 Cardiac Muscle

 3.Adenosine triphosphate (ATP)

provides the energy for cardiac
muscle contraction, and as in other
tissues, ATP production depends on
oxygen availability. Cardiac muscle,
however, cannot develop a large
oxygen debt, a characteristic that is
consistent with the function of the
heart. Development of a large
oxygen debt would result in muscle
fatigue and cessation of cardiac
 Cardiac Muscle

 4.
Cardiac muscle cells are rich in
mitochondria, which perform
oxidative metabolism at a rate rapid
enough to sustain normal myocardial
energy requirements. An extensive
capillary network provides an
adequate oxygen supply to the
cardiac muscle.
 Cardiac Muscle

 5.Cardiac muscle cells are organized

in spiral bundles or sheets. The
cells are bound end to end and
laterally to adjacent cells by
specialized cell to cell contact called
intercalated disks the membrane
of which is folded to increase surface
contact between them.
 Cardiac Muscle

 Specialized cell membrane structures

called desmosomes hold the cells
together, and gap junctions
function as areas of low electrical
resistance between the cells,
allowing action potentials to pass
from one cell to adjacent cell.
 Electrically, the cardiac muscle cells
behave as a single unit, and the
highly coordinated contractions of
the heart depend on this functional