Functional Interaction of the Cardiovascular and Respiratory Systems During Testing Loads - Essay Example

? The Functional Relationship between the Cardiovascular and Respiratory Systems The Functional Relationship between the Cardiovascular and Respiratory Systems The organ systems of the body work together in unification to provide normal physiological function in an individual. Pathology of one system may result in physiological imbalance and the malfunctioning of other systems. The paper will analyze the relationship between to systems; the cardiovascular and respiratory system. In order to make an analysis of the interaction of the two systems, it is necessary to illustrate how the two systems function independently. The cardiovascular system is responsible for circulation and transport of various nutrients and key elements across the body. The system is comprised of the heart and several blood vessels which can be divided into capillaries, arteries and veins. The heart is responsible for pumping blood to the lungs and all over the body. The heart pumps blood from the right ventricle into the pulmonary artery which transports it to the lungs. The blood transported to the lungs is poorly oxygenated. In addition, the left ventricle pumps oxygenated blood to the aorta which is responsible for transporting blood to the rest of the body. Several arteries branch off the aorta and transport blood to different tissues and organs. However, the blood in arteries is under a lot of pressure, hence, it is then transported to the capillaries which then supply the tissues with oxygenated bloods. In addition, the waste products of tissue respiration are carried by the capillaries to the veins which drain into either the superior or inferior vena cava. These two vessels transport the deoxygenated blood along with waste products to the right atrium. The transportation of blood in the small circle will be further explained in the following chapters. The respiratory system is responsible for the introduction of respiratory gases into the body. The gases are inhaled through the nose and mouth (Kleinstreuer & Zhang, 2010). The intercostal muscles and diaphragm are involved in the process of respiration as they enable the chest to expand and contract during breathing. The inhaled air is transported to the alveoli through the trachea, bronchi and bronchioles. In the alveoli gases exchange takes place (Kleinstreuer & Zhang, 2010). This section will analyze how these two systems interact and provide the appropriate transportation of blood and oxygen under normal physiological conditions. Firstly, it will analyze the interaction in the process of internal respiration. The essence of the two systems working together is that one provides the required substance, which is oxygen and the other system transports it as it can not diffuse to all parts of the body. In absence of the respiratory system, the body will lack oxygen and the cardiovascular system will only be able ton transport deoxygenated blood, which will lead to tissue death and organ failure, this includes also includes failure of the heart as it equally requires a constant oxygen supply. In the absence of the circulatory system, oxygen will be inhaled however the tissues and organs will still die because the oxygen will remain in the lungs and this will also result in oxygen toxicity of the lungs. Internal respiration involves gases that have already been inhaled into the body and have been transported to the lungs. As mentioned above, the respiratory system is responsible for this action. The respiratory system is only able to transport gases from the environment to the lungs and vice versa, hence for transportation of the inhaled gas to the rest of the body, the system is required to interact with the circulatory system. In this case it interacts with the blood taken to the heart by the pulmonary artery. The blood in this artery is poorly oxygenated and is highly concentrated with waste gas such as carbon dioxide. The essence of this procedure is to remove the waste gas and supply the body with oxygen. The gaseous exchange between the two systems occurs at the lower end of the respiratory tract and takes place due to the gradient that exists between the blood and the alveoli. The alveoli are highly concentrated in oxygen hence it diffuses from the alveoli into the blood, and the carbon dioxide which is high in the blood diffuses into the alveoli. This mechanism between the two systems also acts as a regulatory process as oxygen will only diffuse to the circulation system at a particular concentration gradient. The decrease in the concentration of oxygen in the lungs also leads to the necessity for introduction of new gases from the environment. The interaction of the two systems during internal respiration takes place between the alveoli capillary membrane. The components of this interaction site include the alveolus, alveolar capillary membrane, erythrocytes, and capillaries. The carbon dioxide is transported to the site through the capillaries and it later diffuses through the alveolar capillary membrane into the alveolus. The alveolus contains the freshly inhaled oxygenated air which diffuses through the membrane and into the erythrocytes that circulate the body and supply oxygen to the tissues. The system is also regulated by the differences in pressure between the two gases in the respiratory and circulatory system. The alveoli have a large surface which makes the diffusion and exchange of gas between the two systems more efficient. It also increases the speed at which the diffusion process occurs. On the other hand, external respiration involves the procedures that are associated with introducing air from the external environment into the body and releasing air from the body into the environment. The inhaled air is richly oxygenated whilst the exhaled air is deoxygenated and contains are high concentration of waste of waste gases. The process of external respiration is determined by the concentration of oxygen in the circulatory system. Depending of this concentration, the respiratory system can act faster in order to compensate for low oxygen levels or slower if the organism is at rest. The connection between the circulatory system and the respiratory system in this process is in the fact that the parameters of the circulatory system are the ones that induce the rate and functioning of the respiratory system during external breathing. For example, during an intense session of physical activity, an individual is unable to supply his system with sufficient oxygen and hence there is an accumulation of lactic acid in the body. This leads to an increased rate of the respiratory system in order to remove waste gases from the body and introduce oxygen to the respiring tissues. In addition, such situations are often accompanied with tachycardia as the circulatory system also needs to supply the body with the sufficient amount of oxygen. The close connection between these two systems is evident due to the fact that pathologies of one system ultimately affect the functioning of another. The right ventricle is responsible transporting deoxygenated blood to the lungs through the pulmonary artery. Failure in the right ventricle leads to decreased pressure and perfusion in the pulmonary vasculature (Mebezaa, Karpati, Renaud, & Algotsson, 2009). This condition leads to congestion of the lungs and causes edema of the lungs and in chronic phase leads to brown induration of the lungs (Mebezaa, Karpati, Renaud, & Algotsson, 2009). The treatment of this disease can be performed through the respiratory system, by the inhalation of prostacyclin or nitric oxide which are beneficial in reduction of the after load and congestion of the heart (Mebezaa, Karpati, Renaud, & Algotsson, 2009). The circulatory system can also be one of the etiological factors for right ventricular failure as pulmonary hypertension is on of the causes of this pathology. Right ventricular failure diagnosed using echocardiography or an MRI. The diagnosis of this disease is complicated as it does not possess any specific symptoms (Simon, 2013). Another disease is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a disease of the respiratory tracts, which is often accompanied by heart failure. It is difficult to diagnose heart failure in patients who are suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease due to the fact that it obscures some of the symptoms often presented by heart failure patients. The two diseases can be assessed and differentiated using radiological assessment methods, which show hyperinflation of the chest and a reduction in the cardiothoracic ratio (Tamene, Win, Cohn, Taylor & Anand, 2013). As mentioned above, it is evident that the two systems are closely related in their functions. The parameters of each system should be assessed during the diagnostic process of diseases related with circulation or respiration. These systems are assessed by either radiological methods which help determine the morphological changes or during the physical examination where we can determine the presence or tachycardia, bradycardia, tachypenea or bradypenea. In this process the physician calculates the number of beats or breaths per minute. If an individual has a problem with one system the function of the other is likely to be affected and must be assessed. In normal physiological conditions changes can be observed in both system for example during physical activity, both systems increase their rate of function. In summation, it is clear to see that it is impossible to change the functioning of one of these systems without affecting the other in both pathological and physiological conditions. (Wirkner & Richter, 2013). References Kleinstreuer, C., & Zhang, Z. (2010). Airflow and particle transport in the human respiratory system. Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, 42, 301-334. Mebazaa, A., Karpati, P., Renaud, E., & Algotsson, L. (2009). Acute right ventricular failure—from pathophysiology to new treatments. In Applied Physiology in Intensive Care Medicine (pp. 261-272). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Simon, M. A. (2013). Assessment and treatment of right ventricular failure. Nature Reviews Cardiology. Tamene, A., Win, S., Cohn, J., Taylor, A., & Anand, I. (2013). Chronic Obstructive Pulmonery Disease (COPD) is a common comorbidity and is associated with adverse outcomes in patients with heart failure. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 61(10_S). Wirkner, C. S., & Richter, S. (2013). Circulatory system and Respiration. Functional Morphology and Diversity, 1, 376. Read More