Circulatory System | Double Circulation

 

Circulatory System

• The English physician, William Harvey (A.D.1578–1657), discovered the circulation of blood.
• The circulatory patterns are of two types – open or closed.
• Open circulatory system is present in arthropods and molluscs in which blood pumped by the heart passes through large vessels into open spaces or body cavities called sinuses.
• Annelids and chordates have a closed circulatory system in which the blood pumped by the heart is always circulated through a closed network of blood vessels. This pattern is considered to be more advantageous as the flow of fluid can be more precisely regulated.
• All vertebrates possess a muscular chambered heart. Fishes have a 2-chambered heart with an atrium and a ventricle. Amphibians and the reptiles (except crocodiles) have a 3-chambered heart with two atria and a single ventricle, whereas crocodiles, birds and mammals possess a 4-chambered heart with two atria and two ventricles.
• In fishes the heart pumps out deoxygenated blood which is oxygenated by the gills and supplied to the body parts from where deoxygenated blood is returned to the heart (single circulation).
• In amphibians and reptiles, the left atrium receives oxygenated blood from the gills/lungs/skin and the right atrium gets the deoxygenated blood from other body parts. However, they get mixed up in the single ventricle which pumps out mixed blood (incomplete double circulation).
• In birds and mammals, oxygenated and deoxygenated blood received by the left and right atria respectively passes on to the ventricles of the same sides. The ventricles pump it out without any mixing up, i.e., two separate circulatory pathways are present in these organisms, hence, these animals have double circulation. Let us study the human circulatory system.
• Does sponges and hydra also have blood? Animals such as sponges and Hydra do not possess any circulatory system. The water in which they live brings food and oxygen as it enters their bodies. The water carries away waste materials and carbon dioxide as it moves out. Thus, these animals do not need a circulatory fluid like the blood.

Human Circulatory System

Heart

• The heart has four chambers. The two upper chambers are called the atria (singular: atrium) and the two lower chambers are called the ventricles.
• The partition between the chambers helps to avoid mixing up of blood rich in oxygen with the blood rich in carbon dioxide.

Heartbeat

• The walls of the chambers of the heart are made up of muscles. These muscles contract and relax rhythmically. This rhythmic contraction followed by its relaxation constitutes a heartbeat.
• Human circulatory system, also called the blood vascular system consists of a muscular chambered heart, a network of closed branching blood vessels and blood, the fluid which is circulated.
• Heart, the mesodermally derived organ [the middle layer of cells or tissues of an embryo, or the parts derived from this (e.g. cartilage, muscles, and bone)], is situated in the thoracic cavity, in between the two lungs, slightly tilted to the left. It has the size of a clenched fist.
• It is protected by a double walled membranous bag, pericardium, enclosing the pericardial fluid.
• Our heart has four chambers, two relatively small upper chambers called atria and two larger lower chambers called ventricles.
• A thin, muscular wall called the inter­atrial septum separates the right and the left atria, whereas a thick-walled, the inter-ventricular septum, separates the left and the right ventricles.
• The atrium and the ventricle of the same side are also separated by a thick fibrous tissue called the atrio-ventricular septum. However, each of these septa are provided with an opening through which the two chambers of the same side are connected.
• The opening between the right atrium and the right ventricle is guarded by a valve formed of three muscular flaps or cusps, the tricuspid valve, whereas a bicuspid or mitral valve guards the opening between the left atrium and the left ventricle.
• The openings of the right and the left ventricles into the pulmonary artery and the aorta respectively are provided with the semilunar valves.
• The valves in the heart allows the flow of blood only in one direction, i.e., from the atria to the ventricles and from the ventricles to the pulmonary artery or aorta. These valves prevent any backward flow.
• The entire heart is made of cardiac muscles. The walls of ventricles are much thicker than that of the atria.
• A specialized cardiac musculature called the nodal tissue is also distributed in the heart. A patch of this tissue is present in the right upper corner of the right atrium called the sino-atrial node (SAN).
• Another mass of this tissue is seen in the lower left corner of the right atrium close to the atrio-ventricular septum called the atrio-ventricular node (AVN).
• A bundle of nodal fibres, atrio­ventricular bundle (AV bundle) continues from the AVN which passes through the atrio-ventricular septa to emerge on the top of the inter­ventricular septum and immediately divides into a right and left bundle. These branches give rise to minute fibres throughout the ventricular musculature of the respective sides and are called purkinje fibres. These fibres along with right and left bundles are known as bundle of His.
• The nodal musculature has the ability to generate action potentials without any external stimuli, i.e., it is autoexcitable.
• However, the number of action potentials that could be generated in a minute vary at different parts of the nodal system.
• The SAN can generate the maximum number of action potentials, i.e., 70-75/min, and is responsible for initiating and maintaining the rhythmic contractile activity of the heart. Therefore, it is called the pacemaker. Our heart normally beats 70-75 times in a minute (average 72 beats/min).

Cardiac Cycle

Watch these videos for easy understanding

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn6QmETEm8s;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGlFBzaTuoI;

• To begin with, all the four chambers of heart are in a relaxed state, i.e., they are in joint diastole.
• As the tricuspid and bicuspid valves are open, blood from the pulmonary veins and vena cava flows into the left and the right ventricle respectively through the left and right atria. The semilunar valves are closed at this stage.
• The SAN now generates an action potential which stimulates both the atria to undergo a simultaneous contraction – the atrial systole. This increases the flow of blood into the ventricles by about 30 per cent.
• The action potential is conducted to the ventricular side by the AVN and AV bundle from where the bundle of His transmits it through the entire ventricular musculature. This causes the ventricular muscles to contract, (ventricular systole), the atria undergoes relaxation (diastole), coinciding with the ventricular systole.
• Ventricular systole increases the ventricular pressure causing the closure of tricuspid and bicuspid valves due to attempted backflow of blood into the atria.
• As the ventricular pressure increases further, the semilunar valves guarding the pulmonary artery (right side) and the aorta (left side) are forced open, allowing the blood in the ventricles to flow through these vessels into the circulatory pathways.
• The ventricles now relax (ventricular diastole) and the ventricular pressure falls causing the closure of semilunar valves which prevents the backflow of blood into the ventricles.
• As the ventricular pressure declines further, the tricuspid and bicuspid valves are pushed open by the pressure in the atria exerted by the blood which was being emptied into them by the veins. The blood now once again moves freely to the ventricles. The ventricles and atria are now again in a relaxed (joint diastole) state, as earlier.
• Soon the SAN generates a new action potential and the events described above are repeated in that sequence and the process continues.
• This sequential event in the heart which is cyclically repeated is called the cardiac cycle and it consists of systole and diastole of both the atria and ventricles.
• As mentioned earlier, the heart beats 72 times per minute, i.e., that many cardiac cycles are performed per minute. From this it could be deduced that the duration of a cardiac cycle is 0.8 seconds.
• During a cardiac cycle, each ventricle pumps out approximately 70 mL of blood which is called the stroke volume. The stroke volume multiplied by the heart rate (no. of beats per min.) gives the cardiac output.
• Therefore, the cardiac output can be defined as the volume of blood pumped out by each ventricle per minute and averages 5000 mL or 5 litres in a healthy individual.
• The body has the ability to alter the stroke volume as well as the heart rate and thereby the cardiac output. For example, the cardiac output of an athlete will be much higher than that of an ordinary man.
• During each cardiac cycle two prominent sounds are produced which can be easily heard through a stethoscope. The first heart sound (lub) is associated with the closure of the tricuspid and bicuspid valves whereas the second heart sound (dub) is associated with the closure of the semilunar valves. These sounds are of clinical diagnostic significance.

Electrocardiograph (ECG)

• Electro-cardiograph is used to obtain an electrocardiogram (ECG). ECG is a graphical representation of the electrical activity of the heart during a cardiac cycle.
• To obtain a standard ECG, a patient is connected to the machine with three electrical leads (one to each wrist and to the left ankle) that continuously monitor the heart activity.
• For a detailed evaluation of the heart’s function, multiple leads are attached to the chest region. Here, we will talk only about a standard ECG.

• Each peak in the ECG is identified with a letter from P to T that corresponds to a specific electrical activity of the heart.
• The P-wave represents the electrical excitation (or depolarisation) of the atria, which leads to the contraction of both the atria.
• The QRS complex represents the depolarisation of the ventricles, which initiates the ventricular contraction. The contraction starts shortly after Q and marks the beginning of the systole.
• The T-wave represents the return of the ventricles from excited to normal state (repolarization). The end of the T-wave marks the end of systole.
• Obviously, by counting the number of QRS complexes that occur in a given time period, one can determine the heart beat rate of an individual.
• Since the ECGs obtained from different individuals have roughly the same shape for a given lead configuration, any deviation from this shape indicates a possible abnormality or disease. Hence, it is of a great clinical significance.

Double Circulation

• As mentioned earlier, the blood pumped by the right ventricle enters the pulmonary artery, whereas the left ventricle pumps blood into the aorta. The deoxygenated blood pumped into the pulmonary artery is passed on to the lungs from where the oxygenated blood is carried by the pulmonary veins into the left atrium. This pathway constitutes the pulmonary circulation.
• The oxygenated blood entering the aorta is carried by a network of arteries, arterioles and capillaries to the tissues from where the deoxygenated blood is collected by a system of venules, veins and vena cava and emptied into the right atrium. This is the systemic circulation.

• The systemic circulation provides nutrients, O2 and other essential substances to the tissues and takes CO2 and other harmful substances away for elimination.
• A unique vascular connection exists between the digestive tract and liver called hepatic portal system. The hepatic portal vein carries blood from intestine to the liver before it is delivered to the systemic circulation.
• A special coronary system of blood vessels is present in our body exclusively for the circulation of blood to and from the cardiac musculature.

Regulation of Cardiac Activity

• Normal activities of the heart are regulated intrinsically, i.e., auto regulated by specialized muscles (nodal tissue), hence the heart is called myogenic.
• A special neural center in the medulla oblangata can moderate the cardiac function through autonomic nervous system (ANs).
• Neural signals through the sympathetic nerves (part of ANS) can increase the rate of heart beat, the strength of ventricular contraction and thereby the cardiac output.
• On the other hand, parasympathetic neural signals (another component of ANS) decrease the rate of heart beat, speed of conduction of action potential and thereby the cardiac output. Adrenal medullary hormones can also increase the cardiac output.

Disorders of Circulatory System

High Blood Pressure (Hypertension)

• Hypertension is the term for blood pressure that is higher than normal (120/80).
• In this measurement 120 mm Hg (millimetres of mercury pressure) is the systolic, or pumping, pressure and 80 mm Hg is the diastolic, or resting, pressure.
• If repeated checks of blood pressure of an individual is 140/90 (140 over 90) or higher, it shows hypertension.
• High blood pressure leads to heart diseases and also affects vital organs like brain and kidney.

Coronary Artery Disease (CAD)

• Coronary Artery Disease, often referred to as atherosclerosis, affects the vessels that supply blood to the heart muscle. It is caused by deposits of calcium, fat, cholesterol and fibrous tissues, which makes the lumen of arteries narrower.

Angina

• It is also called ‘angina pectoris’. A symptom of acute chest pain appears when no enough oxygen is reaching the heart muscle.
• Angina can occur in men and women of any age but it is more common among the middle-aged and elderly. It occurs due to conditions that affect the blood flow.

Heart Failure

• Heart failure means the state of heart when it is not pumping blood effectively enough to meet the needs of the body. It is sometimes called congestive heart failure because congestion of the lungs is one of the main symptoms of this disease.
• Heart failure is not the same as cardiac arrest (when the heart stops beating) or a heart attack (when the heart muscle is suddenly damaged by an inadequate blood supply).

Summary

• Vertebrates circulate blood, a fluid connective tissue, in their body, to transport essential substances to the cells and to carry waste substances from there. Another fluid, lymph (tissue fluid) is also used for the transport of certain substances.
• Blood comprises of a fluid matrix, plasma and formed elements. Red blood cells (RBCs, erythrocytes), white blood cells (WBCs, leucocytes) and platelets (thrombocytes) constitute the formed elements. Blood of humans are grouped into A, B, AB and O systems based on the presence or absence of two surface antigens, A, B on the RBCs.
• Another blood grouping is also done based on the presence or absence of another antigen called Rhesus factor (Rh) on the surface of RBCs. The spaces between cells in the tissues contain a fluid derived from blood called tissue fluid. This fluid called lymph is almost similar to blood except for the protein content and the formed elements.
• All vertebrates and a few invertebrates have a closed circulatory system. Our circulatory system consists of a muscular pumping organ, heart, a network of vessels and a fluid, blood.
• Heart has two atria and two ventricles. Cardiac musculature is auto-excitable. Sino-atrial node (SAN) generates the maximum number of action protentials per minute (70-75/min) and therefore, it sets the pace of the activities of the heart. Hence it is called the Pacemaker.
• The action potential causes the atria and then the ventricles to undergo contraction (systole) followed by their relaxation (diastole). The systole forces the blood to move from the atria to the ventricles and to the pulmonary artery and the aorta. The cardiac cycle is formed by sequential events in the heart which is cyclically repeated and is called the cardiac cycle.
• A healthy person shows 72 such cycles per minute. About 70 mL of blood is pumped out by each ventricle during a cardiac cycle and it is called the stroke or beat volume.
• Volume of blood pumped out by each ventricle of heart per minute is called the cardiac output and it is equal to the product of stroke volume and heart rate (approx 5 litres).
• The electrical activity of the heart can be recorded from the body surface by using electrocardiograph and the recording is called electrocardiogram (ECG) which is of clinical importance.
• We have a complete double circulation, i.e., two circulatory pathways, namely, pulmonary and systemic are present.
• The pulmonary circulation starts by the pumping of deoxygenated blood by the right ventricle which is carried to the lungs where it is oxygenated and returned to the left atrium.
• The systemic circulation starts with the pumping of oxygenated blood by the left ventricle to the aorta which is carried to all the body tissues and the deoxygenated blood from there is collected by the veins and returned to the right atrium.
• Though the heart is autoexcitable, its functions can be moderated by neural and hormonal mechanisms.