Fascinating Cardiovascular Facts Quiz

Answer: Pulmonary and Systemic

Pulmonary circulation takes oxygen-depleted blood to the lungs, where carbon dioxide is released and oxygen is absorbed, then the now oxygenated blood is returned to the heart. The heart then sends that blood out to the rest of the body, via the systemic circulation system, through the left ventricle and the aorta.

Answer: Artery

A pulse can be felt where an artery, carrying oxygenated blood at high pressure, passes close to the surface of the skin. Bleeding from an artery tends to be bright red due to the high oxygen content and spurts due to the high pressure.

Answer: Pulmonary artery

The pulmonary artery connects the right ventricle of the heart to the lungs. The main trunk, before it splits into the right and left pulmonary arteries, is only about two inches (five cm) in length, but is relatively wide at just over one inch (three cm).

Answer: Pericardial

Pericardial: the pericardial membranes are a fibrous outer layer and a serous (moisture-exuding) inner layer; the space in between is the pericardial cavity. This space is very small, about 0.9 cubic inch (15 milliliters), and is filled with...you guessed it...pericardial fluid.

Answer: Capillaries

Capillaries are the smallest and the most common blood vessels - they're where the critical activity takes place to get oxygen into tissues and carbon dioxide and other waste materials out of the tissues and into the blood. Capillaries are connected to arterioles on one end, to get the fresh blood, and to venules on the other, to carry away the depleted blood.

Answer: Semilunar

The pulmonary and aortic are the semilunar valves. Each valve consists of three half-circle (semilunar) flaps and is located where the arteries that share their names meet the ventricles of the heart.

Answer: Myocardium

"Myo" is a prefix meaning "muscle", and the myocardium is the muscle part of the heart. The bundles of muscle fibers in the myocardium are arranged in branches that produce a wringing action when they contract, efficiently pumping blood through the heart and throughout the entire body.

Answer: Brain

The Circle of Willis sits at the base of the human brain. Its structure provides multiple paths to get oxygenated blood to the brain, a beautifully engineered system providing redundancy in case any part of the structure becomes blocked.

Answer: Liver

The liver is the largest gland in the body. Blood from the spleen, stomach, pancreas and intestines passes through the liver by way of the portal system, which is a vascular bed of capillaries. The liver, among many other functions in other systems, removes waste and toxins from the blood, regulates the volume of the blood, destroys old red blood cells and synthesizes blood clotting factors.

Answer: Lymphatic

The circulatory system contains approximately twenty liters of blood; seventeen liters remains in the blood vessels, while the other three liters of plasma is in the tissues. The lymphatic system collects this fluid and transports it back to the heart.