by admin on Saturday, March 13, 2010 14:58 under Interesting Facts.
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- An artery is a tube-like blood vessel that carries blood away from the heart.
- Systemic arteries deliver oxygenated blood around the body. Pulmonary arteries deliver deoxygenated blood to the lungs.
- An arteriole is a smaller branch off an artery. Arterioles branch into microscopic capillaries.
- Blood flows through arteries at 30 cm per second in the main artery, down to 2 cm or less per second in the arterioles.
- Arteries run alongside most of the veins that return blood to the heart.
- The walls of arteries arc muscular and can expand or relax to control the blood flow.
- Arteries have thicker, stronger walls than veins, and the pressure of the blood in them is a lot higher.
- Over-thickening of the artery walls may be one of the causes of hypertension (high blood pressure).
- In old age the artery walls can become very stiff. This hardening of the arteries, called arteriosclerosis, can cut blood flow to the brain.
