19. The Blood Vessels

How are nutrients, wastes, and respiratory gases transported to and from the blood and tissue spaces?

Edema is a common clinical problem. On your first day of a clinical rotation, you encounter four patients who have edema for different reasons. Your challenge is to explain the edema in terms of either an increase or a decrease in one of the four pressures that causes bulk flow (see Focus Figure 18.1).(1) First you encounter Mrs. Taylor in the medical unit awaiting a liver transplant. What is the connection between liver failure and her edema?(2) Next in the obstetric ward, Mrs. So is experiencing premature labor and has edema in her legs. Which bulk flow pressures might be altered here?(3) In emergency, Mr. Herrera is in anaphylactic shock. His capillaries have become leaky, allowing plasma proteins that are normally kept inside the blood vessels to escape into the interstitial fluid. Which of the bulk flow pressures is altered in this case and in what direction is the change?(4) Finally, in oncology Mrs. O'Leary is recovering from breast cancer surgery. Her right breast and all of her axillary lymph nodes were removed. Unfortunately, this severed most of the lymphatic vessels draining her right arm. You notice that this arm is quite edematous. Why? Mrs. O'Leary is given a compression sleeve to wear on this arm to help relieve the edema. Which of the bulk flow pressures will be altered by the compression sleeve?

Net hydrostatic pressure forces water ____a capillary; net osmotic pressure reabsorbs water _____ a capillary. (a) into, out of, (b) out of, into, (c) out of, out of, (d) into, into.

What are the primary forces that cause fluid to move (a) out of a capillary at its arterial end and into the interstitial fluid, (b) into a capillary at its venous end from the interstitial fluid?

Which of the following is greater? (a) the osmotic pressure of the interstitial fluid during inflammation, (b) the osmotic pressure of the interstitial fluid during normal conditions, (c) neither is greater.

Capillary permeability increase and plasma proteins leak into the interstitial fluid as part of the inflammatory process. Why is this desirable?

Tracing the blood from the heart to the right hand, we find that blood leaves the heart and passes through the aorta, the right subclavian artery, the axillary and brachial arteries, and through either the radial or ulnar artery to arrive at the hand. Which artery is missing from this sequence?a. coronary,b. brachiocephalic,c. cephalic,d. right common carotid.