THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM

FUNCTION

1. Transport materials
 Heart (blood)
 Lungs (oxygen, carbon dioxide, wastes)
 Adrenal gland (hormones)
 Antibodies
 Kidneys (waste)
 Small intestine (nutrients)
 Liver (enzymes, glycogen, waste)
 Large intestine (vitamins, water)

2. Regulate Body Temperature

 Perspiration
 Conduction
 Convection
 Radiation

PARTS

1. Blood

 Red blood cells - Carry oxygen to all cells in the body

- No nucleus
- Has a life span of 4 months (120 days)
- Makes up approximately 40% of Blood volume
- Carry oxygen to the cells of the body
- Return to the lungs to excrete carbon dioxide
 White blood cell – fight infections
- Largest of the three types of blood cells
- Short life cycle, living from a few days to a few weeks
- One drop of Blood can contain from 7,000 to 25,000 white Blood cells
 Platelets – help to clot the blood
- The smallest of the blood cells
- Make up 5% to 7% of total Blood volume
- Form a 'mesh' net to form clots in the Blood to
- help stop bleeding
 Plasma
- A sticky, pale yellow fluid mixture of water, protein and salts
- It is 95% water
- The other 5% is made up of nutrients, proteins and hormones. Blood Plasma constitutes 55% of the
volume of human Blood

Blood Facts

Blood makes up about 7% of your body's weight.

An average adult has about 14 to 18 pints of Blood.
One standard unit or pint of Blood equals about two cups.
Blood carries oxygen and nutrients to all of the body.
Blood carries carbon dioxide and other waste products back to the lungs, kidneys and liver
for disposal.
Blood fights against infection and helps heal wounds.
One unit of donated whole Blood is separated into components before use (red Blood cells,
white Blood cells, plasma, platelets, etc.)
There are four main Blood types: A, B, AB and O.
 Each Blood type is either Rh positive or negative.
The three main types of cells making up our Blood are the
White Blood cells, Red Blood cells and Platelets

2. Blood vessels

 Artery – carries oxygenated blood except for the PULMUNARY ARTERY which carries deoxygenated blood
 Vein – carries deoxygenated blood except for the PULMUNARY VEIN which carries oxygenated blood
 Capillary – connects the artery and vein

TRIVIA: If laid end to end, your blood vessels would stretch out to about 161,000 km! (About 4 times the
distance around the equator!)

3. Heart

PATH OF BLOOD THROUGH THE HEART

Blood enters the heart through two large veins, the inferior and superior vena cava, emptying oxygen-poor
blood from the body into the right atrium of the heart. As the atrium contracts, blood flows from your right atrium into
your right ventricle through the open tricuspid valve. When the ventricle is full, the tricuspid valve shuts. This
prevents blood from flowing backward into the atria while the ventricle contracts. As the ventricle contracts, blood
leaves the heart through the pulmonic valve, into the pulmonary artery and to the lungs where it is oxygenated.
Once blood travels through the pulmonic valve, it enters your lungs. This is called the pulmonary circulation.
From your pulmonic valve, blood travels to the pulmonary artery to tiny capillary vessels in the lungs. Here, oxygen
travels from the tiny air sacs in the lungs, through the walls of the capillaries, into the blood. At the same time,
carbon dioxide, a waste product of metabolism, passes from the blood into the air sacs. Carbon dioxide leaves the
body when you exhale. Once the blood is purified and oxygenated, it travels back to the left atrium through the
pulmonary veins.
The pulmonary vein empties oxygen-rich blood from the lungs into the left atrium of the heart. As the atrium
contracts, blood flows from your left atrium into your left ventricle through the open mitral valve. When the ventricle
is full, the mitral valve shuts. This prevents blood from flowing backward into the atrium while the ventricle
contracts. As the ventricle contracts, blood leaves the heart through the aortic valve, into the aorta and to the body.

Heart Facts

Your system of blood vessels – arteries, veins and capillaries – is over 60,000 miles long. That's
long enough to go around the world more than twice!
The adult heart pumps about 5 quarts of blood each minute –approximately 2,000 gallons of
blood each day – throughout the body.
When attempting to locate their heart, most people place their hand on their left chest. Actually,
your heart is located in the center of your chest between your lungs. The bottom of the heart is
tipped to the left, so you feel more of your heart on your left side of your chest.
The heart beats about 100,000 times each day.
In a 70-year lifetime, the average human heart beats more than 2.5 billion times
An adult woman’s heart weighs about 8 ounces, a man’s about 10 ounces
A child’s heart is about the size of a clenched fist; an adult’s heart is about the size of two fists.
Blood is about 78 percent water.
Blood takes about 20 seconds to circulate throughout the entire vascular system.
The structure of the heart was first described in 1706, by Raymond de Viessens, a French
anatomy professor.
The electrocardiograph (ECG) was invented in 1902 by Dutch physiologist Willem Einthoven. This
test is still used to evaluate the heart’s rate and rhythm.
The first heart specialists emerged after World War I.
Fill in the Blanks – Choose a word from the word pool for each blank. Some words may be used more than once.
Some words may not be used at all.

veins capillaries arteries heart

blood vessel plasma platelets white blood cells
red blood cells hemoglobin

1. ____________________ carry blood away from the heart.

2. The structures in the blood that are used to fight disease are called _______________________.
3. The substance in the blood that gives it its red color is _______________________.
4. The name given to any tube that carries blood is a(n) _______________________.
5. The straw-colored part of the blood that is made up mostly of water is ____________________.
6. ________________________ carry hemoglobin that binds to oxygen and picks up waste carbon dioxide.
7. The smallest blood vessels are ___________________________.
8. The pumping organ of the human body is the ____________________.
9. The part of the blood that helps a wound to stop bleeding is the ______________________.

Label the Heart Diagram using the word list provided.

Word List: Superior vena cava Right pulmonary artery Right pulmonary veins
Right atrium Rt. AV Valve (Tricuspid) Right ventricle
Inferior vena cava Left pulmonary artery Left pulmonary veins
Left atrium Lt AV Valve (Bicuspid) Aorta
Left ventricle Septum

1. __________________________
2. __________________________
3. __________________________
4. __________________________
5. __________________________
6. __________________________
7. __________________________
8. __________________________
9. __________________________
10. ________________________
11. ________________________
12. ________________________
13. ________________________
14. ________________________