A wall called the interatrial septum is between the atria. The atria are separated from the ventricles by the atrioventricular valves: The tricuspid valve separates the right atrium from the right ventricle.

The mitral valve separates the left atrium from the left ventricle. Two valves also separate the ventricles from the large blood vessels that carry blood leaving the heart: The pulmonic valve is between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery, which carries blood to the lungs.

The aortic valve is between the left ventricle and the aorta, which carries blood to the body. What Are the Parts of the Circulatory System? Two pathways come from the heart: The pulmonary circulation is a short loop from the heart to the lungs and back again. The systemic circulation carries blood from the heart to all the other parts of the body and back again.

In pulmonary circulation: The pulmonary artery is a big artery that comes from the heart. It splits into two main branches, and brings blood from the heart to the lungs.

At the lungs, the blood picks up oxygen and drops off carbon dioxide. The blood then returns to the heart through the pulmonary veins. In systemic circulation: Next, blood that returns to the heart has picked up lots of oxygen from the lungs. So it can now go out to the body.

The aorta is a big artery that leaves the heart carrying this oxygenated blood. Branches off of the aorta send blood to the muscles of the heart itself, as well as all other parts of the body. Like a tree, the branches gets smaller and smaller as they get farther from the aorta.

At each body part, a network of tiny blood vessels called capillaries connects the very small artery branches to very small veins.

The capillaries have very thin walls, and through them, nutrients and oxygen are delivered to the cells. Waste products are brought into the capillaries. Capillaries then lead into small veins. Small veins lead to larger and larger veins as the blood approaches the heart.

Valves in the veins keep blood flowing in the correct direction. Two large veins that lead into the heart are the superior vena cava and inferior vena cava.

The terms superior and inferior don't mean that one vein is better than the other, but that they're located above and below the heart. Once the blood is back in the heart, it needs to re-enter the pulmonary circulation and go back to the lungs to drop off the carbon dioxide and pick up more oxygen.

Capillaries are so small that blood cells can only move through them one at a time. Oxygen and food nutrients pass from these capillaries to the cells. Capillaries are also connected to veins, so wastes from the cells can be transferred to the blood.

Veins have one-way valves instead of muscles, to stop blood from running back the wrong way. Generally, veins carry deoxygenated blood from the body to the heart, where it can be sent to the lungs.

The exception is the network of pulmonary veins, which take oxygenated blood from the lungs to the heart. Blood pressure refers to the amount of pressure inside the circulatory system as the blood is pumped around.

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Circulatory system. Actions for this page Listen Print. Summary Read the full fact sheet. On this page. Blood The heart The right side of the heart The left side of the heart Blood vessels Arteries Capillaries Veins Blood pressure Common problems Where to get help Things to remember.

In coordination with valves, the chambers work to keep blood…. The coronary sinus is a collection of smaller veins that merge together to form the sinus or large vessel , which is located along the heart's….

The left atrium is one of the four chambers of the heart, located on the left posterior side. Its primary roles are to act as a holding chamber for…. The right ventricle is the chamber within the heart that is responsible for pumping oxygen-depleted blood to the lungs.

The right ventricle is one of…. The thoracic spinal vertebrae consist of 12 total vertebrae and are located between the cervical vertebrae which begin at the base of the skull and….

The coccyx, also known as the tailbone, is a small, triangular bone resembling a shortened tail located at the bottom of the spine. It is composed of…. A Quiz for Teens Are You a Workaholic? How Well Do You Sleep? Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect.

human body maps circulatory system Circulatory. Medically reviewed by Deborah Weatherspoon, Ph. The heart and its function. The arteries and their function. The veins and their function. The blood and its function. How the circulatory system works.

Symptoms of poor circulation. Conditions that affect the circulatory system. How we reviewed this article: Sources. Healthline has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations.

We avoid using tertiary references. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy. Jun 20, Written By Cathy Lovering.

Dec 31, Medically Reviewed By Deborah Weatherspoon, Ph. Share this article. Read this next. Right atrium Medically reviewed by the Healthline Medical Network. Coronaries Medically reviewed by the Healthline Medical Network. Cross-section Medically reviewed by the Healthline Medical Network.

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Oxygen can diffuse from the surrounding water into the cells, and carbon dioxide can diffuse out. Consequently, every cell is able to obtain nutrients, water and oxygen without the need of a transport system. Some animals, such as jellyfish , have more extensive branching from their gastrovascular cavity which functions as both a place of digestion and a form of circulation , this branching allows for bodily fluids to reach the outer layers, since the digestion begins in the inner layers.

The earliest known writings on the circulatory system are found in the Ebers Papyrus 16th century BCE , an ancient Egyptian medical papyrus containing over prescriptions and remedies, both physical and spiritual.

In the papyrus , it acknowledges the connection of the heart to the arteries. The Egyptians thought air came in through the mouth and into the lungs and heart. From the heart, the air travelled to every member through the arteries.

Although this concept of the circulatory system is only partially correct, it represents one of the earliest accounts of scientific thought. In the 6th century BCE, the knowledge of circulation of vital fluids through the body was known to the Ayurvedic physician Sushruta in ancient India.

However, their function was not properly understood then. Because blood pools in the veins after death, arteries look empty. Ancient anatomists assumed they were filled with air and that they were for the transport of air.

The Greek physician , Herophilus , distinguished veins from arteries but thought that the pulse was a property of arteries themselves.

Greek anatomist Erasistratus observed that arteries that were cut during life bleed. He ascribed the fact to the phenomenon that air escaping from an artery is replaced with blood that enters between veins and arteries by very small vessels.

Thus he apparently postulated capillaries but with reversed flow of blood. In 2nd-century AD Rome , the Greek physician Galen knew that blood vessels carried blood and identified venous dark red and arterial brighter and thinner blood, each with distinct and separate functions.

Growth and energy were derived from venous blood created in the liver from chyle, while arterial blood gave vitality by containing pneuma air and originated in the heart. Blood flowed from both creating organs to all parts of the body where it was consumed and there was no return of blood to the heart or liver.

The heart did not pump blood around, the heart's motion sucked blood in during diastole and the blood moved by the pulsation of the arteries themselves. Galen believed that the arterial blood was created by venous blood passing from the left ventricle to the right by passing through 'pores' in the interventricular septum, air passed from the lungs via the pulmonary artery to the left side of the heart.

As the arterial blood was created 'sooty' vapors were created and passed to the lungs also via the pulmonary artery to be exhaled. In , The Canon of Medicine by the Persian physician , Avicenna , "erroneously accepted the Greek notion regarding the existence of a hole in the ventricular septum by which the blood traveled between the ventricles.

Thus, expansion : pause : contraction : pause. which takes the form of alternate expansion and contraction. In , the Arabian physician , Ibn al-Nafis described the process of pulmonary circulation in greater, more accurate detail than his predecessors, though he believed, as they did, in the notion of vital spirit pneuma , which he believed was formed in the left ventricle.

Ibn al-Nafis stated in his Commentary on Anatomy in Avicenna's Canon :. the blood from the right chamber of the heart must arrive at the left chamber but there is no direct pathway between them. The thick septum of the heart is not perforated and does not have visible pores as some people thought or invisible pores as Galen thought.

The blood from the right chamber must flow through the vena arteriosa pulmonary artery to the lungs, spread through its substances, be mingled there with air, pass through the arteria venosa pulmonary vein to reach the left chamber of the heart and there form the vital spirit In addition, Ibn al-Nafis had an insight into what would become a larger theory of the capillary circulation.

He stated that "there must be small communications or pores manafidh in Arabic between the pulmonary artery and vein," a prediction that preceded the discovery of the capillary system by more than years.

Michael Servetus was the first European to describe the function of pulmonary circulation, although his achievement was not widely recognized at the time, for a few reasons.

He firstly described it in the "Manuscript of Paris" [34] [35] near , but this work was never published. And later he published this description, but in a theological treatise, Christianismi Restitutio , not in a book on medicine.

Only three copies of the book survived but these remained hidden for decades, the rest were burned shortly after its publication in because of persecution of Servetus by religious authorities. A better known discovery of pulmonary circulation was by Vesalius 's successor at Padua , Realdo Colombo , in Finally, the English physician William Harvey , a pupil of Hieronymus Fabricius who had earlier described the valves of the veins without recognizing their function , performed a sequence of experiments and published his Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus in , which "demonstrated that there had to be a direct connection between the venous and arterial systems throughout the body, and not just the lungs.

Most importantly, he argued that the beat of the heart produced a continuous circulation of blood through minute connections at the extremities of the body. This is a conceptual leap that was quite different from Ibn al-Nafis' refinement of the anatomy and bloodflow in the heart and lungs. However, Harvey was not able to identify the capillary system connecting arteries and veins; these were later discovered by Marcello Malpighi in In , André Frédéric Cournand , Werner Forssmann and Dickinson W.

Richards were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine "for their discoveries concerning heart catheterization and pathological changes in the circulatory system.

In the s, Diana McSherry developed computer-based systems to create images of the circulatory system and heart without the need for surgery.

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Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiversity. Organ system for circulating blood in animals. This article is about the animal circulatory system. For plants, see Vascular tissue.

Several terms redirect here. For the song by Ed Sheeran, see Bloodstream song. For the album by Youves, see Cardio-Vascular. The human circulatory system simplified. Red indicates oxygenated blood carried in arteries. Blue indicates deoxygenated blood carried in veins.

Capillaries join the arteries and veins. Main article: Heart. Main article: Pulmonary circulation. Main article: Artery. See also: Arterial tree. Main article: Vein. Main article: Portal venous system.

Main article: Coronary circulation. Main article: Cerebral circulation. Main articles: Heart development , Vasculogenesis , Vascular remodelling in the embryo , and Fetal circulation. Main article: Aortic arches. Further information: Vasculogenesis. Main article: Blood § Oxygen transport.

Further information: List of circulatory system conditions. Main article: Cardiovascular disease. This section needs expansion.

You can help by adding to it. March Further information: Vascular surgery and Vascular bypass. See also: Hemolymph. Cardiology — Branch of medicine dealing with the heart Cardiovascular drift — medical condition Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback Cardiac cycle — Performance of the human heart Vital heat Cardiac muscle — Muscular tissue of heart in vertebrates Major systems of the human body — Entire structure of a human being Pages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets Amato Lusitano — Portuguese physician — Pages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets Vascular resistance — Force from blood vessels that affects blood flow.

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Physiology of the cardiovascular system. Cardiac cycle Cardiac output Heart rate Stroke volume Stroke volume End-diastolic volume End-systolic volume Afterload Preload Frank—Starling law Cardiac function curve Venous return curve Wiggers diagram Pressure volume diagram.

Cardiac pacemaker Chronotropic Heart rate Dromotropic Conduction velocity Inotropic Contractility Bathmotropic Excitability Lusitropic Relaxation. Conduction system Cardiac electrophysiology Action potential cardiac atrial ventricular Effective refractory period Pacemaker potential Electrocardiography P wave PR interval QRS complex QT interval ST segment T wave U wave Hexaxial reference system.

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Development of the circulatory system. Truncus arteriosus Bulbus cordis Primitive ventricle Primitive atrium Sinus venosus. Atrioventricular Primary interventricular foramen Endocardial cushions Septum intermedium Atrioventricular canal Atrial Septum primum Foramen secundum Primary interatrial foramen Septum secundum Foramen ovale.

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Cardiovascular disease heart. Coronary artery disease CAD Coronary artery aneurysm Spontaneous coronary artery dissection SCAD Coronary thrombosis Coronary vasospasm Myocardial bridge. Angina pectoris Prinzmetal's angina Stable angina Acute coronary syndrome Myocardial infarction Unstable angina.

hours Hibernating myocardium Myocardial stunning days Myocardial rupture weeks Ventricular aneurysm Dressler syndrome. Myocarditis Chagas disease Cardiomyopathy Dilated Alcoholic Hypertrophic Tachycardia-induced Restrictive Loeffler endocarditis Cardiac amyloidosis Endocardial fibroelastosis Viral Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia.

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mitral prolapse stenosis regurgitation aortic stenosis regurgitation tricuspid stenosis regurgitation pulmonary stenosis regurgitation. Sinus bradycardia Sick sinus syndrome Heart block : Sinoatrial AV 1° 2° 3° Intraventricular Bundle branch block Right Left Left anterior fascicle Left posterior fascicle Bifascicular Trifascicular Adams—Stokes syndrome.

Atrial Multifocal Junctional AV nodal reentrant Junctional ectopic. Accelerated idioventricular rhythm Catecholaminergic polymorphic Torsades de pointes.

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Andersen—Tawil Jervell and Lange-Nielsen Romano—Ward. Sudden cardiac death Asystole Pulseless electrical activity Sinoatrial arrest. hexaxial reference system Right axis deviation Left axis deviation QT Short QT syndrome T T wave alternans ST J wave ST elevation ST depression Strain pattern.

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Haemoglobin molecules inside red blood cells pick up and carry the oxygen. These oxygen-rich cells travel in the blood vessels from the lungs to the left side of the heart. The blood is then pumped around the body. Red blood cells are adapted for the transport of oxygen.

They are small and flexible so they can fit through narrow vessels, have a bi-concave shape which maximises their surface area to absorb oxygen, have a thin membrane so gases easily diffuse through, and contain haemoglobin which binds to oxygen.

It is the millions of iron-containing haemoglobin proteins that make blood red. Molecules with more oxygen bound to them are brighter red. When the red blood cells reach tissues that need oxygen, the oxygen is released from the haemoglobin and diffuses into the cells where it is used to make energy.

All the systems in our body rely on oxygen to make energy. Blood keeps us alive. At the same time, red blood cells will pick up waste carbon dioxide that has been released from the cells and entered the blood stream. Red blood cells carrying less oxygen are a duller red colour, which is why deoxygenated blood in our veins is a darker red than oxygenated.

Red blood cells then travel within veins back to the right side of the heart. From the heart the blood is pumped back to the lungs where the carbon dioxide is released from the blood into the air sacs to be breathed out.

Air is breathed in, oxygen is picked up by the blood and the journey begins again. The blood carries nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, sugars, fats and proteins around the body. Digested nutrients are absorbed into the blood through capillaries in the small intestine.

They are then moved to the cells around the body where they are needed. The blood vessels near to the cells are small in diameter so the blood flows more slowly, allowing the cells to take up nutrients from the blood and to exchange waste products into the blood to be removed. Waste products are transported to the organs that remove them from the blood and then eliminate them from the body.

For example, excess water is filtered out by the kidneys and toxins are removed from the blood by the liver. In coordination with valves, the chambers work to keep blood…. The coronary sinus is a collection of smaller veins that merge together to form the sinus or large vessel , which is located along the heart's….

The left atrium is one of the four chambers of the heart, located on the left posterior side. Its primary roles are to act as a holding chamber for…. The right ventricle is the chamber within the heart that is responsible for pumping oxygen-depleted blood to the lungs.

The right ventricle is one of…. The thoracic spinal vertebrae consist of 12 total vertebrae and are located between the cervical vertebrae which begin at the base of the skull and….

The coccyx, also known as the tailbone, is a small, triangular bone resembling a shortened tail located at the bottom of the spine.

It is composed of…. A Quiz for Teens Are You a Workaholic? How Well Do You Sleep? Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. human body maps circulatory system Circulatory. Medically reviewed by Deborah Weatherspoon, Ph.

The heart and its function. The arteries and their function. The veins and their function. The blood and its function. How the circulatory system works. Symptoms of poor circulation. Conditions that affect the circulatory system.

How we reviewed this article: Sources. Healthline has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations.

We avoid using tertiary references. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy. Jun 20, Written By Cathy Lovering. Dec 31, Medically Reviewed By Deborah Weatherspoon, Ph.

Share this article. Read this next. Right atrium Medically reviewed by the Healthline Medical Network. Coronaries Medically reviewed by the Healthline Medical Network. Cross-section Medically reviewed by the Healthline Medical Network. Coronary sinus Medically reviewed by the Healthline Medical Network.

Left atrium Medically reviewed by the Healthline Medical Network.

The smallest arteries are the arterioles, which move blood from the muscular arteries to the capillaries. The capillaries connect the arteries, which take blood from the heart, and the veins, which take blood to the heart. The number of capillaries in a body system depends on the amount of material exchange.

Skeletal muscle, the liver , and the kidney all have a large number of capillaries because their body systems need a lot of oxygen and nutrients.

The cornea of the eye is one area that has no capillaries. The blood moves back to the heart through veins. The blood travels from the capillaries into the venules, which are the smallest veins. As the blood moves closer to the heart, the veins get larger and larger.

Like the arteries, veins have walls made up of layers called the tunica intima, tunica media, and tunica externa. There are some important differences between the arteries and veins :.

The veins include valves, small pieces of tissue which keep blood flowing in the right direction. The valves in the medium and large veins keep the blood flowing towards the heart.

The tricuspid valve separates the right atrium from the right ventricle. The mitral valve , or bicuspid valve, separates the left atrium from the left ventricle. The remaining two valves are the semilunar valves.

The pulmonic valve , or pulmonary valve, separates the pulmonary artery from the right ventricle. The aortic valve separates the aorta and the left ventricle.

Blood is the transport medium of nearly everything within the body. It moves hormones , nutrients, oxygen, antibodies, and other important things needed to keep the body healthy. About 55 percent of the blood is plasma.

Plasma is what makes blood liquid. Plasma moves blood cells through the body by way of the circulatory system. It also carries hormones, nutrients, antibodies, and waste products. Red blood cells contain a protein called hemoglobin. White blood cells, also called leukocytes, make up just 1 percent of the blood.

They protect the body from infection. Most white blood cells are neutrophils , which live for less than 1 day. Types of lymphocytes include B lymphocytes B cells and T lymphocytes T cells.

B lymphocytes make antibodies, while T lymphocytes regulate other immune cells and target infected cells and tumors. The other major types are basophils , eosinophils, and monocytes. Platelets are essential for blood clotting.

They stick to an injured blood vessel lining to provide the basis for a clot. This stops bleeding and promotes healing.

As the body uses oxygen and processes nutrients, it creates carbon dioxide, which your lungs expel as you exhale. A stroke is when a blood vessel that supplies the brain with oxygen and nutrients is blocked.

When this happens, cells in your brain begin to die off. Circulatory system issues are best treated as early as possible. Your doctor can help monitor your cardiovascular health, as well as your blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Call or seek immediate medical attention if you experience signs of a heart attack or stroke. Signs of a heart attack can include:. Signs of a stroke include:. Your circulatory system is made up of your heart and an intricate network of blood vessels.

The purpose of this system is to keep all the cells in your body supplied with fresh oxygen and nutrients while removing carbon dioxide and other waste products. Several different types of conditions can affect your circulatory system.

Many of these conditions involve some type of blood vessel blockage, which can lower oxygen delivery to vital organs. There are steps you can take to keep your circulatory system as healthy as possible.

Some key steps include getting regular exercise, eating heart-healthy foods, not smoking, and maintaining a moderate weight.

Regular visits to your doctor can also help identify and treat any potential problems before they become more serious issues. Read this article in Spanish. Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available.

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How Well Do You Sleep? Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. What Makes Up Your Circulatory System and How Does It Work? Medically reviewed by Dr. Payal Kohli, M. on February 17, What is it? Fast facts How it works Conditions When to seek care Disease prevention Bottom line Your circulatory system , also known as your cardiovascular system, is made up of your heart and blood vessels.

What makes up the circulatory system? What Are the Parts of the Circulatory System? Two pathways come from the heart: The pulmonary circulation is a short loop from the heart to the lungs and back again.

The systemic circulation carries blood from the heart to all the other parts of the body and back again. In pulmonary circulation: The pulmonary artery is a big artery that comes from the heart.

It splits into two main branches, and brings blood from the heart to the lungs. At the lungs, the blood picks up oxygen and drops off carbon dioxide. The blood then returns to the heart through the pulmonary veins.

In systemic circulation: Next, blood that returns to the heart has picked up lots of oxygen from the lungs. So it can now go out to the body.

The aorta is a big artery that leaves the heart carrying this oxygenated blood. Branches off of the aorta send blood to the muscles of the heart itself, as well as all other parts of the body. Like a tree, the branches gets smaller and smaller as they get farther from the aorta.

At each body part, a network of tiny blood vessels called capillaries connects the very small artery branches to very small veins.

The capillaries have very thin walls, and through them, nutrients and oxygen are delivered to the cells. Waste products are brought into the capillaries. Capillaries then lead into small veins.

Small veins lead to larger and larger veins as the blood approaches the heart. Valves in the veins keep blood flowing in the correct direction.

Two large veins that lead into the heart are the superior vena cava and inferior vena cava. The terms superior and inferior don't mean that one vein is better than the other, but that they're located above and below the heart.

Once the blood is back in the heart, it needs to re-enter the pulmonary circulation and go back to the lungs to drop off the carbon dioxide and pick up more oxygen.

How Does the Heart Beat? One complete heartbeat is made up of two phases: The first phase is called systole pronounced: SISS-tuh-lee. This is when the ventricles contract and pump blood into the aorta and pulmonary artery.

During systole, the atrioventricular valves close, creating the first sound the lub of a heartbeat. When the atrioventricular valves close, it keeps the blood from going back up into the atria.