Circulatory System Superior Vena Cava
Superior Vena Cava sounds like some Greek mythological creature huh? Well, it’s only a location within the circulatory system that is talking about veins, but not just any veins the two largest within the human body. The superior vena cava and the Inferior vena cava are the two largest veins that allow blood to enter the right atrium chamber of the heart. Blood returns to the heart from all over the body. The right heart pump receives oxygen-poor blood from veins or de-oxygenated blood. When the pulmonary ventricles contract, blood in the right ventricle is pumped into the pulmonary artery from there is broken down into the lungs. When blood reaches the lungs, oxygen is added and carbon dioxide is removed.
Pulmonary veins carry oxygen rich blood from the lungs and returns it to the left atrium of the heart through pulmonary veins. After passing the pulmonary veins, blood travels through the left AV or bicuspid valve into the left ventricle. When the left ventricle contracts, blood is pumped through the aortic semilunar valve into the aorta. Thus the heart actually act as two separate pumps that run in sync with one another.
Two different types of circulation through a closed system using two separate pumps and one heart would only naturally have two names for the circulatory path in which the blood flows. The first path is called pulmonary circulation and the second is called systemic circulation. Pulmonary circulation is that which involves the movement of blood from the right ventricle to the lungs. Systemic circulation involves movement of blood from the left ventricle throughout the body as a whole. Blood also flows through the heart itself after all it’s a muscle too and must be supplied with blood to be able to function properly. The Right and Left Coronary arteries permit blood to flow into the heart itself. The aorta’s first branches are the coronary arteries. Just like a thrombus in other parts of the body the coronary arteries can have a coronary thrombus or throw that clot into the blood stream and create a coronary embolism.
