Introduzione completa all'apparato cardiocircolatorio

The cardiovascular system's function is to nourish the body's tissues and eliminate waste products from them through blood, a specialized connective tissue (fluid). It is made up of hollow organs, the most important of which is undoubtedly the heart, an organ that acts as a pump, circulating blood within other hollow organs called vessels. These vessels can be classified into two categories: arterial vessels, which transport blood from the heart to the periphery, and venous vessels, which carry blood from the periphery to the heart. The arterial vessels continue into the venous vessels through a final category of very thin vessels called capillaries, which represent the most distal, peripheral portion of the cardiovascular system, where the exchange of nutrients and waste products between blood and other tissues occurs. The most important nutrient for the body's proper functioning is oxygen, while the queen of waste products is carbon dioxide. By convention, oxygenated blood is colored red in all anatomy textbooks, while deoxygenated blood is colored blue. However, not all arteries contain oxygenated blood, and similarly, not all veins contain deoxygenated blood. Blood from the tissues reaches the right atrium of the heart via two large veins called the vena cava. From the right atrium, the blood moves to the right ventricle, where it is pumped into the pulmonary artery, which branches into a left and right pulmonary artery, reaching the respective lungs. Here, the blood picks up oxygen and releases CO2, becoming oxygenated blood and entering the pulmonary veins, which terminate at the level of the left atrium. From here, the blood first reaches the left ventricle and is then pumped into the aorta, the largest and most important artery in the body, before reaching all the tissues. So, as you can see, our cardiovascular system has two circulations: The major circulation, also called systemic circulation, transports oxygenated blood to all the body's tissues via the systemic arteries. In this system, the arteries contain oxygenated blood (red), while the veins contain deoxygenated blood (blue). In the minor circulation, also called pulmonary circulation, the opposite occurs. Deoxygenated blood from the systemic circulation, therefore from the tissues, is sent from the heart to the lungs via the pulmonary arteries. At the pulmonary capillaries, it releases carbon dioxide and replenishes its oxygen, before returning to the heart via the pulmonary veins. In the minor circulation, unlike the systemic circulation, the arteries transport deoxygenated blood (blue), while the veins transport oxygenated blood (red). So, to summarize, the functions of the cardiovascular system are: transport nutrients to the tissues. transport waste substances from tissues to the organs responsible for expelling them transport hormones and various cells of the immune system thermoregulation 00:00 Intro (blood, heart, and vessels) 02:17 Diagram of the cardiovascular system 05:17 Major and minor circulation 06:35 Functions