The systemic circulation includes all arteries and veins outside of the pulmonary circulation, which was presented in Chapter 4. The coronary circulation, which is really part of the systemic circulation, was also presented in that chapter.
Thus, the focus of this chapter will be on other vessels in the systemic circulation. As you work through the following tables, you will notice that many of the names are similar to names you learned for various body regions and organs. Since some of names may be unfamiliar, a pronunciation guide is provided in Table 1.
Table 26-1. Vessel Names
MAJOR SYSTEMIC ARTERIES OF THE BODY
We will first look at the body’s major systemic arteries, which conduct oxygenated blood from the heart to tissues throughout the body, with the exception of vessels fed and drained by the pulmonary arteries and veins, respectively. Table 2 lists the major systemic arteries in the left col umn in alphabetical order. You should be able to identify these arteries on models, diagrams, and other sources provided in lab.
Additionally, for each artery, you should be able to state (1) its location, (2) source of blood (i.e., arteries that feed blood into the artery of interest), and (3) the vessels to which the artery of interest feeds blood (i.e., the destination of blood in the artery of interest). Figures 26-1 and 26-3 show some of the arteries listed in Table 2, but in the lab, you will be provided more diagrams showing the other arteries.
Table 11-2. Major Arteries in the Body
MAJOR SYSTEMIC VEINS OF THE BODY
Now we turn our attention to the body’s major veins, which transport deoxygenated blood back toward the right atrium of the heart. You may notice that many of the names for veins are the same as those used for arteries.
Table 3 lists ma jor systemic veins in alphabetical order, and like the arteries, you should be able to identify these vessels on models, diagrams, and various other sources provided in lab. For each vein, you should be able to discuss (1) its location, (2) source of blood (vein or organ that feeds the vein of inter est), and (3) the vessels to which they feed blood (destination of blood). Figures 26-2 and 26-4 show some of the veins listed in the table. You will be provided more diagrams in lab
Figure 26-3. Major Veins in the Body
1Vein most commonly used for withdrawing blood
2Longest vessel in the body
3Widest vessel in the body
Figure 26-2. Major veins of the body
Figure 26-3. Arteries of the abdominopelvic cavity
(excluding renal arteries)
Figure 26-4. Veins of the abdominopelvic cavity
(excluding renal veins)
SELECTED SYSTEMIC TRACES
While recognizing arteries and veins on drawings is important, it is equally important to know various blood traces; that is, pathways that blood takes when moving to and from specific organs. When writing out blood traces, consider using the generic acronyms in Table 4, which are used for selected traces in Table 5. When reading those traces, all vessels written to the left of the capillaries (abbreviated caps) are arteries, while all vessels to the right of caps are veins. For some traces, a part is written within parentheses to represent alternate pathways, depending on the side of the body the trace involves. As an example, consider the path of blood to and from the arm, written as follows:
aorta, (brce, rsub OR subl), axi, brac, cap, brac, axi, sub, brce, SVC. For the right arm, the blood would pass through the aorta, brachiocephalic artery (brce), right subclavian artery (subr), right axillary artery (axi), right brachial artery (brac) and capillaries (cap) of the right arm. Blood gets back to the heart by passing through the right brachial vein (brac), right axillary vein (axi), right subclavian vein (subr), right brachiocephalic vein (brce), and finally the superior vena cava (SVC). However, blood going to the left arm passes from the aorta directly to the left subclavian artery (subl) and not through a brachiocephalic artery since one does not exist on the left side. All other names in the trace are similar to those on the right side except that “left” is substituted for “right” when referring to the axillary, brachial, and other vessels.
Table 26-4. Generic acronyms for vessels used in systemic blood traces
Table 26-5. Blood traces to and from selected organs
EOC Questions
