Chapter 42 - Introduction

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To fully appreciate this tutorial, you should be familiar with the concepts of:
• Basic anatomy of the heart
• Basic circulatory system anatomy

After this tutorial, you will be able to describe:
• The path that blood takes through the mammalian circulatory system
• The pattern of oxygenation and deoxygenation of blood in the mammalian circulatory system

How does blood flow through the human circulatory system?

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The mammalian circulatory system
Atrial contractions
The pulmonary circuit
The systemic circuit
The cardiac cycle
Cardiac cycle II
Summary

Each of the cells in a large animal must be able to exchange O₂ and CO₂ across its plasma membrane to carry out aerobic respiration. Yet most of these cells are too far away from a respiratory surface to rely on simple diffusion to meet their metabolic requirements. So how do the individual cells of large animals get the O₂ they need?