Below are the solutions to the Aortic Aneurysms Self-Assessment Questions:
- Arteries are thicker, more elastic, and they carry blood from the heart. Veins are thinner, less elastic, carry blood to the heart, and are a blood volume reservoir.
Arteries carry blood away from the heart (think AA, arteries away), while veins carry blood towards the heart. The aorta is the biggest artery in the body and supplies systemic circulation with oxygenated blood pumped from the left ventricle. - Compliance is the amount of volume change per change in unit pressure.
This is explained by the equation C = dV/dP. By veins being more compliant, they have a larger change in volume for a given pressure change. - Thinner and less elastic walls.
Because veins have less elastic and thinner walls, they are less able to recoil back to their original shape. Thus they are distended to a greater extent when blood flows through them than arteries, which are thick vessels with high elasticity. - Any of the following are correct: Weakening of the aorta, blood pushing on artery walls causing it to bulge, aortic hardening, congenital conditions, other diseases mentioned in the video.
All of these causes have the common denominator of causing decreased ability of the aorta to resist the high pressures produced by pulsatile blood flow as it is pumped to systemic circulation. This in turn results in increased risk of aortic rupture, which can be deadly.
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