Know Your Blood Vessels

Image courtesy of Carolina Biological Supply/Access Excellence

Blood vessels are intricate networks of hollow tubes that transport blood throughout the entire body. There are several types of blood vessels:

• Arteries - elastic vessels that transport blood away from the heart.
  
• Veins - elastic vessels that transport blood to the heart.
  
• Capillaries - extremely small vessels located within the tissues of the body that transport blood from the arteries to the veins.
  
• Sinusoids - extremely small vessels located within the liver, spleen and bone marrow.

Blood travels from the heart via arteries to smaller arterioles, then to capillaries or sinusoids, to venules, to veins and back to the heart. This continuous cycle of blood flow is known as the cardiac cycle.