Coronary Arteries Blood Flow
Although the heart pumps blood around the body, supplying oxygenated blood to cells within the human body and removing waste products such as CO2, the heart itself is only oxygenated through relatively small coronary arteries that flow around the heart.
The following is a diagram from renowned Medical Author, Gray’s Anatomy:
Blood is supplied to the heart during the diastolic phase (relaxation phase) of the cardiac cycle. During the systolic phase (when the left ventricle is contracting) very little blood is supplied to the coronary arteries. During diastole, the left ventricle relaxes, but the high pressures within the aortic arch allow the residual blood pressure (diastolic blood pressure) to force oxygenated blood into the coronary arteries, which branch off the ascending aorta.
From the ascending aorta blood flows into the two main coronary arteries – the left coronary artery and the right coronary artery. There is also a circumflex artery that supplies oxyenated blood to the walls of the left atrium and left ventricle.
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