Good afternoon, my name is Professor Su’e and today we will be going on a fantastic voyage! This is not just any voyage; this is a voyage from the femoral vein to the lower lobe of the right lung in an actual human being! You may be asking yourself why we are going inside a human being but also how we are going to do it. Well first, we are going to get inside my submarine and go through a miniaturization process that will shrink us to 8 microns long.
That’s tiny! From there we will begin in the femoral vein of this healthy female you see on the table to travel to her lung where a bacterium is invading the lower lobe of her lung. This process should not take too long, but there is so much to see, so everyone jump in! We begin right here in the femoral vein which is actually a blood vessel alongside the femoral artery (Yahoo Health, 2013).
We are located in the upper thigh and pelvic region.
This vein is quite large and its function is to receive blood from other veins and transport oxygen rich blood into the heart and lungs by the external iliac vein where the cycle will constantly repeat until of course you die (Yahoo Health, 2013).
Because of its size and importance, problems with the femoral vein could potentially be fatal. This is especially true if the vein develops a thrombus or some other type of blockage. Also, the vein is prone to damage via intravenous drug abuse (Wisegeek, 2013).
The Essay on Voyage to the Lungs and Out the Nose
Today we are going to be entering the right femoral vein of a healthy female. I am your pilot Kierra Lewis. While we embark on this journey, make sure that you keep your hands and feet inside the submarine at all times. Fasten your seat belts and let’s start our journey! We will begin our journey in the femoral vein. As you can see the femoral vein is a blood vessel that is responsible for ...
Are there any questions so far?
Moving right along we are now heading towards the inferior vena cava. The large structure with the folds over there is the large intestine. Notice the size and length of that puppy! Ah, here we are the inferior vena cava. This here is another large vein. It collects blood from the hepatic veins, lumbar veins, gonadal veins, renal veins, and phrenic veins. These vessels usually drain regions that are supplied by arteries with corresponding names. The inferior vena cava enters the heart through the right atrium. The blood flowing through the inferior vena cava is very rich in oxygen (Innerbody, 2013).
If you look around, you will see the splenic vein over there, and look right there, that is the gastric vein and artery! Around here you can also find the mesenteric vein and artery. As you can see, we are surrounded by bundles of arteries and veins in just this one section of the body! Though you can’t see them, there are tiny capillaries surrounding us that are also known as exchange vessels which exchange nutrients and gases. If you will look to your left, you will see the abdominal aorta. It is exactly what it sounds like; a portion of the heart that extends into the abdominal area.
If you continue to look to your left, you will see a bean like structure and that my friend’s is the one and only stomach. Did you know that the stomach can hold about 1. 5 gallons of food and liquid at its maximum fullness? (Yahoo Health, 2013).
The food will generally stay in the body for up to four hours and then it will pass through the stomachs main area for digestion. That is for another day, though. We must continue on this journey to the lung. Here we are now at the heart; my favorite part of the body. We are located by the right atrium where the inferior vena cava enters it at the lower back side of the heart (Wisegeek, 2013).
As you can see from our current location, we are near the aorta which is the largest artery in the human body, behind the pulmonary and tricuspid valves and the pulmonary artery, and as you can see, blood is moving very fast in all directions from these so called pipes. The pulmonary veins are carrying oxygen rich in blood from the veins while the pulmonary artery, tricuspid valve and the right atrium itself are carrying oxygen poor blood toward the lungs to be re-oxygenated (Thibodeau, G. , & Patton, K. , 2008).
The Essay on Cardiovascular Disease Heart Blood Arteries
Cardiovascular diseases include a wide range of heart abnormalities, as well as diseases of other parts of the circulatory system, such as the coronary arteries, ther cerebrovascular system, the aorta and pulmonary vessels, and the peripheral arteries and veins. Abnormalities of these structures may be either congenital or acquired over time. It has been said that cardiovascular disease kills ...
We are now being forced through the tricuspid valve by the contracting of the right atrium.
From here we will keep being pushed until we leave the pulmonary artery, but first we will pass through the right ventricle of the heart. As I said before, the blood flow we are currently in is oxygen poor because it is heading towards the lungs to be re-oxygenated. Can everyone feel that rumbling? That is the right ventricle contracting and getting ready to push us into the pulmonary semilunar valve and into the pulmonary trunk. Quickly look to your left before we pass, that is the aortic valve. The aortic valve is opening up to allow blood from the left ventricle to flow into the aorta.
This pressure then decreases causing the valve to close which contributes to the second sound we hear when our heart beats (Medicine Net, 2012).
Now that we have just been pushed out the pulmonary artery towards the lungs, we can see a battle with the immune system going on. As we travel closer to the lower lobe of the right lung, we see that the white blood cells which include T cells and B cells which are lymphocytes are being disbursed to start attacking and preventing infection. If you look to the left again, you will see bacteria eating cells called macrophages.
Included in the white blood cells are phagocytes which ingest invader particles. The most important of these phagocytes are neutrophils and monocytes (Thibodeau, G. , & Patton, K. , 2008).
These are some of the first responders to an infection, although they are short lived. The B cells we see coming up fast are sent and made in the bone marrow, it is easy to remember because ‘B’ is for bone. These cells produce what is called humoral immunity or a resistance to disease organisms produced by the action of antibodies binding to specific antigens. (Thibodeau, G. , & Patton, K. , 2008).
The Essay on Ebola Virus Patients Web Blood
The Ebola Virus Cause of Disorder Ebola is a virus and part of the negative-stranded RNA family known as filo virus. It was discovered in 1976 in Africa and was named after a river in Zaire. When the virus is looked at under an electron microscope the filoviridae appear as being long, thin and occasionally they have 'branches's p routing from one place or another. Ebola can also take the form of a ...
The T cells that are coming right along with the B cells are made in the thymus gland. Again this is easy to remember because ‘T’ is for thymus. The T cells are currently binding to antigens and releasing a poison that will kill the invading cell so that the macrophages can come and ingest the invading cell getting rid of it from the body. The immune system cells you see perform other functions as well. They can attract immune cells to the infection site, activate the immune cells, and mark specific cells for destruction and increase blood vessels permeability (Thibodeau, G. , & Patton, K. , 2008).
It looks like this patient is suffering from a bad case of pneumonia. My friend’s, the maintaining of immunity these cells are doing is known as maintaining homeostasis. The body must remain balanced and to do so must regulate the internal environment to maintain a stable, relatively constant condition of properties (Wikipedia, 2013).
We are now traveling into the lung. This will be our last stop until we make our way out of the patient’s nose. We are traveling now through the respiratory membrane which takes us into the alveolus. Alveoli promote the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, so the respiratory membrane we just assed through is very permeable and allow flow both in and out of the grape like sacs (Thibodeau, G. , & Patton, K. , 2008).
From the alveoli we will go through the alveolar sacs into the alveolar ducts into a small passageway called bronchioles. Now that we are in the bronchioles, we are going to go upward through trachea or windpipe. As you look around, you may notice that the entry to the lungs looks like an upside down tree. This structure helps the lungs function to the fullest extent. Isn’t the body an amazing machine? Oh look, we are in the larynx, Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do!
You can clearly see the epiglottis that looks like a flap of cartilage which helps prevent food from going into your airway and the esophagus which is for swallowing food. Our last sight of the day before exiting through the nose is the pharynx. The pharynx or as commonly called the throat is a passageway for both the digestive and respiratory tracts. The oral and nasal cavities lead into the pharynx which leads into the esophagus and larynx as we talked about a minute ago. Oh and there is the tongue. Looks kind of floppy when the patient is sleeping doesn’t it? Ok everybody hold on, we are about to exit the nose!
The Term Paper on Stem Cell
Abstract There are several types of stem cells being used in stem cell research and therapy today. They are embryonic, adult and induced pluripotent stem cells. Each will be discussed further. This topic has stirred much moral, ethical and political debate as whether cells from fetuses should be used in this research. This impacts governmental policies on laws and funding. Another issue that must ...
Three, two, one, blast off! Now that we are all back to normal size and the patient is awake. We can relay our information to the doctor treating this patient so that he can get her on the right treatment plan to get rid of that pneumonia. I hope you all enjoyed our trip through the body. It was a pleasure giving you the tour through the femoral vein out through the nose and I hope you have learned some valuable information. Join me next time as I take us on a journey through the gastrointestinal tract!
