Venous Hemodynamics - Video Lesson

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to today's lesson on hemodynamics. This lesson focuses on the venous system, particularly the structure of veins, their normal function, venous flow characteristics, their adaptation to increased inflow, and the impact of respiration on venous hemodynamics. Veins play a critical role in the circulatory system by transporting deoxygenated blood back to the heart. Unlike arteries into which the heart pumps blood directly, veins operate in a low pressure system and rely on several physiological mechanisms to maintain effective blood flow. Veins are capacitance vessels, which means they can expand and store large volumes of blood with minimal pressure changes. This is because of the structure of the wall of the vein, which consists of three layers, tunica intima, tunica media, and tunica adventitia, as well as valves within the tunica intima of most veins. The tunica intima