Pulmonary vessels

The pulmonary circulation is the portion of the circulatory system which carries deoxygenated blood away from the right ventricle of the heart, to the lungs, and returns oxygenated blood to the left atrium and ventricle of the heart. The term pulmonary circulation is readily paired and contrasted with the systemic circulation. The vessels of the pulmonary circulation are the pulmonary arteries and the pulmonary veins. The pulmonary circulation is the portion of the circulatory system which carries deoxygenated blood away from the right ventricle of the heart, to the lungs, and returns oxygenated blood to the left atrium and ventricle of the heart. The term pulmonary circulation is readily paired and contrasted with the systemic circulation. The vessels of the pulmonary circulation are the pulmonary arteries and the pulmonary veins. A separate system known as the bronchial circulation supplies oxygenated blood to the tissue of the larger airways of the lung. The earliest human discussions of pulmonary circulation date back to Egyptian times. Human knowledge of pulmonary circulation grew gradually over centuries, and scientists Ibn al-Nafis, Michael Servetus, and William Harvey provided some of the first accurate descriptions of this process. Deoxygenated blood leaves the heart, goes to the lungs, and then re-enters the heart; Deoxygenated blood leaves through the right ventricle through the pulmonary artery. From the right atrium, the blood is pumped through the tricuspid valve (or right atrioventricular valve), into the right ventricle. Blood is then pumped from the right ventricle through the pulmonary valve and into the main pulmonary artery. The pulmonary arteries carry deoxygenated blood to the lungs, where carbon dioxide is released and oxygen is picked up during respiration. Arteries are further divided into very fine capillaries which are extremely thin-walled. The pulmonary vein returns oxygenated blood to the left atrium of the heart. The oxygenated blood then leaves the lungs through pulmonary veins, which return it to the left heart, completing the pulmonary cycle. This blood then enters the left atrium, which pumps it through the mitral valve into the left ventricle. From the left ventricle, the blood passes through the aortic valve to the aorta. The blood is then distributed to the body through the systemic circulation before returning again to the pulmonary circulation. From the right ventricle, blood is pumped through the semilunar pulmonary valve into the left and right main pulmonary arteries (one for each lung), which branch into smaller pulmonary arteries that spread throughout the lungs. The pulmonary circulation loop is virtually bypassed in fetal circulation. The fetal lungs are collapsed, and blood passes from the right atrium directly into the left atrium through the foramen ovale: an open conduit between the paired atria, or through the ductus arteriosus: a shunt between the pulmonary artery and the aorta. When the lungs expand at birth, the pulmonary pressure drops and blood is drawn from the right atrium into the right ventricle and through the pulmonary circuit. Over the course of several months, the foramen ovale closes, leaving a shallow depression known as the fossa ovalis.