Pulmonary circulation

Diagram of pulmonary circulation. Oxygen-rich blood is shown in red; oxygen-depleted blood in blue.

Pulmonary circulation is the portion of the

cardiovascular system which carries oxygen-depleted blood away from the heart, to the lungs, and returns oxygenated blood back to the heart. The term is contrasted with systemic circulation. A separate system known as the bronchial circulation supplies blood to the tissue of the larger airways of the lung.

Course
Pulmonary circulation is the movement of blood from the heart, to the lungs, and back to the heart again. De-oxygenated blood leaves the heart, goes to the lungs, and then re-enters the heart; oxygen poor blood leaves through the right ventricle through the pulmonary artery, the only artery in the body that carries oxygen-poor blood, to the capillaries where carbon dioxide diffuses out of the blood cell into the alveoli, and oxygen diffuses out of the alveoli into the blood. Blood leaves the capillaries to the pulmonary vein, the only vein in the body that carries oxygen-rich blood to the heart, where the blood re-enters at the left atrium.

Right heart
Oxygen-depleted blood from the body leaves the systemic circulation when it enters the right heart, more specifically the right atrium through the superior (upper) vena cava and inferior (lower) vena cava. The blood is then pumped through the tricuspid valve (or right

atrioventricular valve), into the right ventricle. Blood is then pumped through the semilunar valve and into the pulmonary artery.

Arteries From the right ventricle, blood is pumped through the pulmonary semilunar valve into the left and right pulmonary arteries (one for each lung) and travels through the lungs. Lungs The pulmonary arteries carry deoxygenated blood to the lungs, where it releases carbon dioxide and pick up oxygen during respiration. Arteries are further divided in to very fine branches called the capillaries. In structure the capillaries are very thin walled. Their function is to carry blood to all cells of the body. Veins The oxygenated blood then leaves the lungs through pulmonary veins, which return it to the left heart, completing the pulmonary cycle. This blood then enters the left atrium, which pumps it through the bicuspid valve, also called the mitral or left atrioventricular valve, into the left ventricle. The blood is then distributed to the body through the systemic circulation before returning again to the pulmonary circulation. History Pulmonary circulation was first discovered and published by Ibn al-Nafis in his Commentary on Anatomy in Avicenna's Canon (1242). It was later published by Michael Servetus in Christianismi Restitutio (1553). Since it was a theology work condemned by most of the Christian factions of his time, the discovery remained mostly unknown until the dissections of William Harvey in 1616. Embryonic The pulmonary circulation loop is virtually bypassed in fetal circulation. The fetal lungs are collapsed, and blood passes from the right atrium directly into the left atrium through the foramen ovale, an open passage between the two atria. When the lungs expand at birth, the pulmonary pressure drops and blood is drawn from the right atrium into the right ventricle and through the pulmonary circuit. Over the

course of several months, the foramen ovale closes, leaving a shallow depression known as the fossa ovalis in the adult heart.

Systemic circulation is the part of the cardiovascular system which carries oxygenated blood away from the heart to the body, and returns deoxygenated blood back to the heart. This physiologic theory of circulation was first described by William Harvey. This term is opposed and contrasted to the term pulmonary circulation first proposed by Ibn al-Nafis.[1] Course Systemic circulation refers to the part of the circulatory system in which the blood leaves the heart, services the body's cells, and then re-enters the heart. Blood leaves through the left ventricle to the aorta, the body's largest artery. The aorta leads to smaller arteries, arterioles, and finally capillaries. Waste and carbon dioxide diffuse out of the cell into the blood and oxygen in the blood diffuses out of the blood and into the cell, blood then moves to venious capillaries, and then the venae cavae: the lower inferior vena cava and the upper superior vena cava, through which the blood re-enters the heart at the right atrium.

Arteries Oxygenated blood enters the systemic circulation when leaving the left ventricle, through the aortic semilunar valve. The first part of the systemic circulation is the aorta, a massive and thick-walled artery. The aorta arches and branches into major arteries to the upper body before passing through the diaphragm, where it branches further into arteries which supply the lower parts of the body.

Veins After their passage through body tissues, capillaries merge once again into venules, which continue to merge into veins. The venous system finally coalesces into two major veins: the superior vena cava (roughly speaking draining the areas above the heart) and the inferior vena cava (roughly speaking from areas below the heart). These two great vessels empty into the right atrium of the heart. Portal veins The general rule is that arteries from the heart branch out into capillaries, which collect into veins leading back to the heart. Portal veins are a slight exception to this. In humans the only significant example is the hepatic portal vein which combines from capillaries around the gut where the blood absorbs the various products of digestion; rather than leading directly back to the heart, the hepatic portal vein branches into a second capillary system in the liver. Advantage Because the systemic circulation is powered by the left ventricle (which is very muscular), one advantage of this form of circulation - as opposed to open circulation, or the gill system that fish use to breathe - is that there is simultaneous high-pressure oxygenated blood delivered to all parts of the body (except for the inner epithelial lining of the lungs which receive their oxygen during the exchange of the gases themselves - Dr. Matayoshi)