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Cardiovascular System - part of your circulatory system

The main components of your cardiovascular system is the heart and the blood vessels.[1]

It includes:

• The pulmonary circulation, a "loop" through the lungs where blood is oxygenated
• The systemic circulation, a "loop" through the rest of the body to provide oxygenated blood
• The coronary circulation

Pulmonary circulation

The portion of your cardiovascular system which transports oxygen-depleted blood away from your heart, to the lungs, and returns oxygenated blood back to your heart.

Oxygen deprived blood from the vena cava enters the right atrium of the heart and flows through the tricuspid valve into the right ventricle, from which it is pumped through the pulmonary semilunar valve into the pulmonary arteries which go to the lungs. Pulmonary veins return the now oxygen-rich blood to the heart, where it enters the left atrium before flowing through the mitral valve into the left ventricle. Then, oxygen-rich blood from the left ventricle is pumped out via the aorta, and on to the rest of the body.

Systemic circulation

The portion of your cardiovascular system which transports oxygenated blood away from your heart, to the rest of your body, and returns oxygen-depleted blood back to your heart.

Systemic circulation is much longer than pulmonary circulation as it carries blood to every part of your body.

Coronary circulation

The blood supply to your heart. Because it provides oxygenated blood to the heart, it is by definition a part of the systemic circulatory system.

The vessels that deliver oxygen-rich blood to the myocardium are known as coronary arteries. The vessels that remove the deoxygenated blood from the heart muscle are known as coronary veins.

1. nlm.nih.gov

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