Arteries and Veins. The Difference in the Composition of Blood

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Medicine - General, grade: 75.5, , language: English, abstract: This essay seeks to examine the differences in the composition of blood carried by veins and arteries. An artery is a vessel that carries blood away from the heart and toward other tissues and organs. Arteries are part of the circulatory system, which delivers oxygen and nutrients to every cell of the body. They transport blood rich in oxygen to the organs of the body. Veins afterwards transport the deoxygenated an thus darker blood from parts of our body back to the heart. For many medical applications it would be of great benefit, if the vessels could be distinguished into arteries and veins, since there are many diseases with one symptom being an abnormal ratio of the size of arteries to veins. For example, in diabetic patients the veins are abnormally wide, while diseases of the pancreas lead to narrowed arteries and high blood pressure results in thickened arteries.