11.1 Introduction to the Cardiovascular System
Learning Objectives
- Address major gross and microscopic structural components of the cardiovascular system
- Describe the flow of fluid through the systemic and pulmonary circulations
- Illustrate the functional relationships among the cardiovascular components
Introduction to the Cardiovascular System[1]
The heart can be described as a “pump” because its contraction pumps blood throughout the body. Although the term heart is an English word, cardiac (heart-related) terminology can be traced back to the Greek term kardia. Cardiology is the study of the heart, and cardiologists are the physicians who treat conditions related to the heart.
An average adult heart beats 75 beats per minute, approximately 108,000 times in one day, more than 39 million times in one year, and nearly 3 billion times during a person’s 75-year life span. The ventricles (major pumping chambers of the heart) eject approximately 70 mL of blood per contraction in an adult, equal to 5.25 liters of fluid per minute and approximately 14,000 liters per day. Over one year, that would equal 10,000,000 liters or 2.6 million gallons of blood sent through roughly 60,000 miles of vessels. To understand how blood flow occurs in the blood vessels throughout the body, it is necessary to understand the anatomy and physiology of the heart.
- Betts, J. G., Young, K. A., Wise, J. A., Johnson, E., Poe, B., Kruse, D. H., Korol, O., Johnson, J. E., Womble, M., & DeSaix, P. (2022). Anatomy and physiology 2e. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/anatomy-and-physiology-2e/pages/1-introduction ↵
The study of the heart.
