Vessels

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Vessel Objectives

List the various blood vessels, including arteries, arterioles, capillaries, venules, and veins.
Describe the structures and functions of arteries, veins, and capillaries.
Explain the blood pressure test, including how it relates to artery pressures and what the systolic and diastolic numbers indicate.

In the cardiovascular system, focus is often placed on the heart that creates pressure and pumps the blood. The vessels are also critical; these tubes carry blood throughout the body, even feeding the heart itself.

We will start with an overview of vessels, examine different types of blood vessels, and then learn about measuring pressure in arteries.

You may notice that branching vessels look a lot like tree roots or a river delta. Many of nature’s pattern’s repeat and we have a book recommendation on the resource page in case you would like to learn more.

Resources

Arteries and veins are under significantly different pressures. Which one is under the highest pressure?

The valves in some veins can fail over time, leading to a condition called varicose veins. This can cause cosmetic changes of more visible veins near the surface of the skin, or more medically serious disruptions in blood “back-flow” in larger veins. Causes vary, and can include age, genetics, hormones, and injury.

There are a lot of vessels to name in the human body, and you may learn them in detail if you take a medical anatomy course. For this class, you are learning the names of the vessels you will mostly likely encounter or hear about over time.

Let’s relate the vessels we’ve learned about in this section to the heart anatomy we covered in the previous section.

Blood Pressure

All of us will have blood pressure measured many times over our lifetime. This is a demo on how to monitor BP at home, including what is happening to arteries during this test.

The next section introduces the blood that is flowing through the vessels.

Check your knowledge. Can you:

list the various blood vessels, including arteries, arterioles, capillaries, venules, and veins?
describe the structures and functions of arteries, veins, and capillaries?
explain the blood pressure test, including how it relates to artery pressures and what the systolic and diastolic numbers indicate?