Exam Study Guide

Important Topics

Venous Return

  • Comprehensive understanding required.
  • Knowledge of vein valves is essential.
  • Understanding that most blood is in the veins at any given time.
  • Awareness of cardiac suction.
  • Understanding how breathing affects venous return.
  • Understanding how muscle flexion affects venous return.
  • Overall, a thorough understanding of how blood returns to the heart.

Types of Capillaries

  • In-depth knowledge of the three different types of capillaries is required.
  • Understanding where each type of capillary is found in the body.
  • Understanding why there are three different types, relating structure to function.
  • Detailed knowledge of their features and roles.

Right vs. Left Sides of the Heart

  • Clarity on the differences between the right and left sides of the heart.
  • Explanation of why the left side is larger than the right side.
  • Knowledge of the different valves on each side.
  • Understanding the difference in musculature.
  • Knowing which side carries oxygenated and deoxygenated blood.

Pulmonary vs. Systemic Circuits

  • Ability to explain the pulmonary and systemic circuits.

Chapter 1: Blood

Functions of Blood

  • Knowledge of the functions of whole blood.
  • Understanding the functions of different blood cells.
  • Understanding where blood cells originate.
  • Knowing that Bone marrow is responsible for making blood cells.

Red Blood Cells (Erythrocytes)

  • Understanding the function of red blood cells.
  • Knowing what makes a red blood cell a red blood cell.
  • Understanding hemoglobin (a quaternary protein with an iron molecule).
  • Knowing what happens when hemoglobin breaks down and where the breakdown products go.
  • Knowing the lifespan of red blood cells (approximately 120 days).
  • Understanding that the spleen is primarily responsible for removing old red blood cells and why that is.
  • Understanding the liver's role in red blood cell maintenance.

White Blood Cells

  • Understanding where white blood cells come from.
  • Knowledge of the different types of white blood cells and their functions is crucial.

Blood Typing

  • Understanding blood types (A, B, AB, O) and Rhesus (Rh) factor.
  • If you are type A blood, you have type A antigens on your blood cells and can make antibodies against type B blood.
  • If you are type O, you can fight off A and B.
  • If you have A and B, you don't fight off anybody.
  • Understanding universal recipient and universal donor.
  • Rh factor: understanding Rh positive and Rh negative.

Blood Composition and Properties

  • Knowledge of the chemical and physical nature of blood.
  • Understanding blood viscosity and its relation to hematocrit.
  • Knowing that males and females have different red blood cell counts.

Erythropoietin and Thrombopoietin

  • Understanding blood doping and artificial erythropoietin.
  • Erythropoietin triggers red blood cell formation.
  • Why the kidneys might trigger the production of Erythropoietin.
  • Understanding thrombopoietin.

Plasma Proteins

  • Knowledge of plasma proteins, where they come from, and why they are important
  • Understanding how blood osmolarity is maintained and which plasma protein is primarily responsible

Blood Clotting

  • Understanding thrombin, fibrin, fibrinogen, and prothrombin.
  • Knowledge of the blood clotting process.

Anemia

  • Understanding different types of anemia:

    • Pernicious anemia.
    • Hemorrhagic anemia.
    • Sickle cell anemia.

  • Knowing the causes, effects, and treatments for each type of anemia.

Other Important Terms

  • Megakaryocyte
  • Pulmonary embolism
  • Heart murmur
  • Pericarditis
  • Hemolytic disease of the newborn (Rh incompatibility)
    • Mom is Rhesus negative, and dad is Rhesus positive.
    • Understanding the use of RhoGAM to prevent hemolytic disease
    • Why it primarily affects the second child, not the first.

The Heart

Layers of the Heart

  • Understanding the layers of the heart:

    • Outer layer.
    • Inner layer.
    • Middle layer (myocardium).

  • Serosa.

Cardiac Muscle

  • Characteristics of cardiac muscle.
  • Gap junctions in intercalated discs.
  • Mitochondria content.
  • Oxygen demand.

Blood Supply to the Heart

  • Understanding how blood in the heart doesn't directly feed the heart muscle; it needs to be pumped into capillary beds around it.
  • Knowledge of major cardiac arteries and veins.
  • Understanding coronary thrombosis and its relation to a heart attack.

Heart Attack

  • Ability to explain what a heart attack is.

Blood Vessels and Circulation

  • Oxygen content in the heart (left side vs. right side).
  • Pulmonary vs. systemic circuit.

Conductive System of the Heart

  • Knowledge of the conductive system in the heart.
  • Understanding terms like the bundle of His and Purkinje fibers.
  • Walk through an ECG and what all bumps mean.
  • Understanding what each wave represents on an ECG (P, QRS, T).

Cardiac Output

  • Explain the relationship between heart rate, stroke volume, and cardiac output.
  • Understanding that if the heart beats too fast, it loses stroke volume and doesn't pump efficiently.
  • Understanding the influence of heart rate and stroke volume over cardiac output.
  • What's a pacemaker.
  • Blood vessels that are coming off the aorta to go down and feed the heart muscle.

Blood Vessels

  • Understanding the different types of blood vessels:

    • Elastic arteries.
    • Muscular arteries.
    • Arterioles and their role in blood pressure.
    • Types of capillaries.
    • Veins and their valves.

  • Elastic arteries taking the pressure from the heart and slowly contracting in between heartbeats.

  • Understanding resistance in capillary beds.

  • Arterioles regulating blood pressure.

  • What are baroreceptors ?

  • How do baroreceptors work to help you maintain blood pressure?

  • Tunics in an artery wall, be able to diagram out an artery wall.

Blood Pressure

  • Understanding blood pressure: 120/80 (normal).
  • What systolic pressure is and what diastolic pressure is.
  • Systolic pressure: pressure in the arterial network after ventricular contraction.
  • Diastolic pressure: as low as it gets between contractions.

Hypertension

  • Defining hypertension.
  • Understanding how to recognize it.
  • Understanding ways to deal with it.