Ch-14 / Overview of Circulation

by Adi

General Intro
• rate of blood flow thru tissues controlled in response to their need for nutrients and removal of waste prod.
• blood flow to kidney in excess to its metabolic req. ; filters large vol. of blood for excretory func.

Physical Characteristics of Circ.

• two types : systemic circ. & pulm. circ.
• systemic circ. supplies blood to all tissues except lungs ; also called greater circ. OR peripheral circ.

Func. Parts of Circ.

• Arteries ; transports blood under high pressure ; strong vascular walls ; blood flow in high velocity
• Arterioles ; last small branches of arterial system ; control conduits thru which blood released into capillaries ; strong
muscular walls ; closes capillaries completely or can dilate several folds ; can alter blood flow in each tissue vastly
• Capillaries ; exchange fluid, nutrition, hormones etc b/w blood and tissue ; thin walls ; has numerous pores
permeable to water and small mol.
• Venules ; conduits for receiving blood from capillaries ; combines into progressively larger veins
• Veins ; conduits to transport blood back to heart ; major controllable reservoir of extra blood, small/large amt. ; low
pressure ; thin walls ; muscular enough to contract/expand

Vol. in diff Parts of Circ.

• see fig 14-2
• systemic circ. has 84% of entire blood vol. ; 64% of that in veins ; 13% in arteries ; 7% in arterioles & capillaries
• heart & lung has remaining 16% ; 7% in heart ; 9% in pulm. vessels

Cross Sectional Areas & Velocities of Blood flow

• see small table in book
• cross-sec area of veins much larger than arteries ; explains why veins contain much more blood than arteries
• same vol. of blood(F) passes thru each circ. segment per min. ; velocity of blood flow inversely proportional to
vascular cross-sec area(A) ; v=F/A
• under resting conditions ; velocity of blood flow in aorta is 33cm/sec ; 0.3mm/sec in capillaries
• due to small size of capillaries, 0.3 to 1mm ; blood remains in them for only 1-3 sec

Pressure in diff Parts of Circ.

• mean pressure in aorta is high ; avg 100mm Hg
• heart pumping is pulsatile ; arterial pressure alternates b/w avg systolic pressure of 120mm Hg and diastolic pressure
of 80mm Hg ; under resting conditions
• pressure of blood flowing thru systemic circ. reaches 0 as it approach the end of sup. & inf. vena cava before
emptying into right atria
• pressure in systemic capillaries varies b/w 35m Hg(at arteriolar ends) to 10mm Hg(at venous ends) ; avg pressure at
vascular beds is 17mm Hg ; that pressure so low that little plasma leaks thru the capillary pores even tho nutrient
does
• in glomerular capillaries of kidneys ; pressure is high ; about 60mm Hg ; higher rates of fluid filtration since more fluid
leaks out pores
• pressure is pulsatile in pulm. arteries ; same like aorta but far less ; pulm. artery systolic pressure is 25mm Hg ;
diastolic pressure is 8mm Hg ; mean pulm. arterial pressure is 16mm Hg
• mean pulm. capillary pressure is 7mm Hg
• even if its less than systemic circ. ; blood flow thru lungs each min same as thru systemic circ.
• low pressure of pulm. system suits lung cuz all it need to do is expose blood in pulm. capillary to O2 and other gases
in alveoli
Basic Principles of Circ. Func.
1. Blood flow to tissues controlled according to their needs
• active tissue need more supply of nutrients than at rest ; so need inc. blood flow ; 20 to 30 times than resting lvls
• heart cant inc. blood flow so much ; only inc. 4 to 7 times
• microvessels like arterioles monitor tissue needs ; dilates/constricts to control local blood flow
• CNS & hormones also helps

2. Cardiac Output is sum of all local tissue flows

• blood flowing thru tissue returns to heart via veins ; heart responds automatically to this inc. blood flow to it ; pumps
it back into arteries
• special nerve signals make heart pump faster and efficiently to pump out more blood if tissues req. it

3. Arterial Pressure regulation independent of local flow control or cardiac

output control
• if pressure falls below normal ; about 100mm Hg ; nervous reflexes raises it to normal within sec
• nervous signals ; inc. force of pumping ; cause large venous reservoirs to contract ; constrict arterioles to inc. arterial
pressure
• over prolonged periods ; kidneys secr. pressure controlling hormones & regulate blood vol.

Interrelations of Pressure, Flow & Resistance

• blood flow thru vessel determined by 2 factors
• first ; pressure diff b/w two ends of vessel ; also called pressure gradient ; pushes blood thru vessel
• second ; impediment to blood flow ; also called vascular resistance
• resistance occurs due to friction b/w flowing blood & intravascular endothelium
• flow thru vessel calc by ; flow = pressure diff / resistance
• diff in pressure and not absolute pressure that determines flow rate

Blood Flow
• amt. of blood that passes thru circ. at any given time
• overall blood flow thru circ. at rest is 5L/min ; called cardiac output ; cuz this is amt. of blood pumped into aorta by
heart per min

Laminar Flow & Turbulent Flow

• laminar flow ; blood flows at steady rate thru long smooth vessel ; flows in streamlines i.e, each layer of flowing
blood remains same dist. from vessel wall ; called laminar or streamline flow
• Turbulent flow ; blood flows in all dirn. inside the vessel ; layers of blood cont. mixes in the vessel

Parabolic Velocity Profile during Laminar Flow

• when laminar flow occurs ; velocity of flow in center of vessel greater than at outer edges
• when fluid flows inside a vessel, parabolic interface develops ; portion touching the walls move slowly cuz of
adherence while successive layers of fluid slip over each other ; due to the progressive layer being faster than before
due to slipping, central layer is the fastest

Conditions for Turbulent flow

• when rate of blood flow is too great, blood passes by an obstruction, makes a sharp turn, passes over a rough
surface ; flow becomes turbulent/disorderly
• blood flows crosswise in the vessel and along it ; forms whorls called eddy currents ; due to it, blood flows with
greater resistance ; eddies add to overall friction of vessel
• tendency for turbulent flow inc. in direct proportion to diameter of vessel, velocity & density of blood ; inversely
proportion to viscosity of blood
• Reynold's no. (Re) = (velocity*diameter*density) / viscosity
• Reynold's no is the measure of tendency of turbulence to occur
 • viscosity of blood is 1/30 poise, density slightly greater than 1
• when Re rises above 200-400, turbulent flow occurs at some vessel branches but dies in smooth portions of vessels
• when Re above 2,000 ; turbulence occurs even in straight, smooth vessels
• Re for large arteries rises to 200-400 ; almost always some flow turbulence in their branches
• in proximal aorta & pulm. arteries, Re rises to several thousands during rapid phase of ejection ; many conditions also
met in them for turbulence to occur ; like high velocity of blood, pulsatile nature of flow, sudden change in vessel
diameter and large vessel diameter
• in small arteries ; Re never high enough to cause turbulence

Blood Pressure
• force exerted by blood against unit area of vessel wall called blood pressure
• device used to measure pressure called mercury manometer ; invented by Poiseuille in 1846 ; measures in mm Hg
• occasionally measured in cm H2O
• 1mm Hg = 1.36 cm H2O
• specific gravity of mercury is 13.6 times of H2O

Resistance to Blood Flow

• resistance is the impediment to blood flow in a vessel
• calc by measuring blood flow & pressure diff b/w two points in vessel ; if pressure diff is 1mm Hg and blood flow is
1ml/sec then resistance is 1 Peripheral Resistance Unit (PRU)
• occasionally measured in CGS unit called dyne sec/cm5 ; R = 1333*pressure diff(mm Hg) / blood flow(ml/sec)

Total Peripheral Vascular Resistance & Total Pulm. Vascular Resistance

• in circ. system ; rate of blood flow = rate of blood pumped ; rate of blood pumped is Cardiac Output = 100ml/sec
• in systemic circ. ; pressure diff from systemic arteries to systemic veins is 100mm Hg and cardiac output is
100ml/sec ; Total Peripheral Resistance = 100mm Hg/ 100ml/sec = 1PRU
• Total Peripheral Resistance rises to 4PRU ; when all vessels in body strongly constricted
• Total Peripheral Resistance drops to 0.2PRU ; when all vessels greatly dilate
• in pulm. circ. ; mean pulm. arterial pressure is 16mm Hg & mean left atrial pressure is 2mm Hg ; net pressure diff is
14mm Hg ; Total Pulm. Resistance = 14mm Hg/ 100ml/sec = 0.14PRU

Conductance of Blood in a vessel

• measure of blood flow thru vessel at any give pressure diff
• conductance is reciprocal of resistance ; conductance = 1/resistance
• small changes in diameter of a vessel can greatly affect conductance of that vessel ; when flow is streamlined
• conductance of vessel inc. in proportion to diameter4 ; if 3 vessels have diameters 1,2 & 4 and their diameter inc. 4x
then new conductance are 14=1 , 24=16 & 44=256
• in large vessels ; blood can be imagined to layer in concentric ring like fashion ; ring touching the wall barely flows
due to adherence to wall ; next ring flows rapidly ; next ring even more rapidly ; cont. till the center ring flows with
highest spd ; inc. diameter will inc. these rings, making rings near center flow even more rapidly and hence inc.
conductance
• in small vessels ; all blood is near walls ; so no such rapidly flowing stream of blood happens

Poiseuille's Law
• he integrated all the velocities of concentric rings of flowing blood and derived a formula
• blood flow, F = π*ΔP*radius4÷ 8𝜂𝑙 ; η=viscosity , l= length of vessel

Arterioles and Diameter

• in systemic circ. ; 2/3rd of resistance to flow is resistance in small arterioles
• int. diameters of arterioles range from 4 to 25mm ; strong vascular walls allow to change int. diameter upto 4x tho
• this 4x inc. in diameter can cause inc. in conduction upto 256x
• changes in diameter brought by nervous signals/hormones ; can completely stop flow or inc. it vastly

Resistance to Blood Flow in Parallel & Series Circuit

 • blood pumped by heart ; flows from high pressure part(aorta) of systemic circ. to low pressure part (vena cava)
• arteries, arterioles, capillaries, venules, veins ; together arranged in series
• in series ; flow thru each vessel is same ; total resistance = sum of individual resistances of each vessel ; Rtotal = R1+R2…
• Total Peripheral Resistance = sum of resistances of arteries + arterioles + capillaries + venules + veins
• vessels branch extensively to form parallel circuits ; supply blood to tissues/organs ; allows each tissue to regulate it's
own blood flow ; independent of flow to other tissues to a great extent ; 1/Rtotal = 1/R1 + 1/R2 +……
• in parallel circuit ; great amt. of blood flows compared to single vessels in series ; total resistance far less than
individual resistance ; flow determined by pressure gradient & vessel's own resistance, not parallel resistance ; inc.
resistance of any vessel inc. total vascular resistance
• paradox ; but adding more vessels to parallel circuit dec. total vascular resistance ; easier for blood to flow thru
circuit ; gives another pathway for flowing/conductance ; conductance = C1 + C2 +….
• example ; brain, kidney, muscle, GIT, skin, coronary circ. ; all in parallel circuit ; each contribute to overall
conductance of systemic circ. ; amputation of a limb or removal of kidney results in removal of a parallel circuit ; dec.
total conductance and dec. total blood flow ; inc. total peripheral vascular resistance

Blood Hematocrit & Blood Viscosity Vs Vascular Resistance & Blood

flow
• higher viscosity results in lower flow in vessel
• viscosity of normal blood is 3x of normal H2O
• blood is so viscous? cuz of RBCs ; each adds frictional drag against adjacent cell & against wall of vessel
• hematocrit is proportion of blood that is RBCs ; in adult men its 42 ; in women 38 ; varies greatly due to factors like
anemia, degree of body activity & altitude of the person
• if hematocrit inc. , viscosity inc. too ; viscosity at normal hematocrit is 3-4x of H2O ; if hematocrit rise to 60-70 like in
polycythemia, viscosity inc. to 10x of H2O
• other factors to affect viscosity are plasma protein conc. and types of protein in plasma ; but their effect much low
than hematocrit ; viscosity of blood plasma is 1.5x of H2O