Systemic Circulation - Course

Course

Systemic circulation refers to the part of the circulatory system in which the blood leaves the heart, services the body's cells, and then re-enters the heart. Blood leaves through the left ventricle to the aorta, the body's largest artery. The aorta leads to smaller arteries, arterioles, and finally capillaries. Waste and carbon dioxide diffuse out of the cell into the blood, and oxygen in the blood diffuses into the cell. Blood then moves to venious capillaries, and then the venae cavae: the lower inferior vena cava and the upper superior vena cava, through which the blood re-enters the heart at the right atrium.