aorta

Examples of aorta in the following topics:

• Blood Flow Through the Body

  • In the aorta, the blood travels at 30 cm/sec.
  • From the aorta, blood flows into the arteries and arterioles and, ultimately, to the capillary beds.
  • As it reaches the capillary beds, the rate of flow is dramatically (one-thousand times) slower than the rate of flow in the aorta.
  • While the diameter of each individual arteriole and capillary is far narrower than the diameter of the aorta, the rate is actually slower due to the overall diameter of all the combined capillaries being far greater than the diameter of the individual aorta.
  • The flow rate increases again, but is still much slower than the initial rate in the aorta.

• Structures of the Heart

  • Coronary circulation intrinsic to the heart takes blood directly from the main artery (aorta) coming from the heart.
  • The valve separating the chambers on the left side of the heart is called the biscuspid or mitral valve (left atrioventricular valve).The blood passes through the bicuspid valve to the left ventricle where it is pumped out through the aorta, the major artery of the body, taking oxygenated blood to the organs and muscles of the body.
  • Once blood is pumped out of the left ventricle and into the aorta, the aortic semilunar valve (or aortic valve) closes, preventing blood from flowing backward into the left ventricle.
  • The coronary arteries branch from the aorta, surrounding the outer surface of the heart like a crown.
  • From the left ventricle, blood re-enters the systemic circuit through the aorta and is distributed to the rest of the body.

• Blood Pressure

  • It is calculated by multiplying the number of heart contractions that occur per minute (heart rate) times the stroke volume (the volume of blood pumped into the aorta per contraction of the left ventricle).

• Kidney Structure

  • Renal blood supply starts with the branching of the aorta into the renal arteries (which are each named based on the region of the kidney they pass through) and ends with the exiting of the renal veins to join the inferior vena cava.

• Arteries, Veins, and Capillaries

  • The main artery is the aorta that branches into other major arteries, which take blood to different limbs and organs.

• The Cardiac Cycle

  • Following a brief delay, the ventricles contract at the same time forcing blood through the semilunar valves into the aorta and the pulmonary artery (which transports blood to the lungs).