Hi Sami, yes! Much like how when you hear the word 'cardiac', it is synonymous with 'heart', the word 'pulmonary' is always said in relation to the lungs. So, just to break it down a little further:
Arteries carry blood away from the heart.
Veins carry blood towards the heart.
In systemic circulation, the systemic arteries are taking the oxygenated blood from the left atrium of the heart and spreading it throughout the body to bring oxygen to the rest of the tissues in the body. The systemic veins are bringing the deoxygenated blood back into the right atrium of the heart.
From there, you enter pulmonary circulation. In pulmonary circulation, the pulmonary arteries take that deoxygenated blood from the right atrium and bring the blood to the lungs to be oxygenated. Then, the pulmonary veins bring the oxygenated blood back to the heart, depositing that blood into the left atrium and starting the whole process over again.
The tricky thing with this differentiation is where the blood is oxygenated or not.
To that point, some main takeaways to remember:
Systemic arteries carry oxygenated blood from the heart to the rest of the body.
Systemic veins carry deoxygenated blood from the body back to the heart.
Pulmonary arteries carry deoxygenated blood from the heart to the lungs.
Pulmonary veins carry oxygenated blood from the lungs back to the heart.
Hope this helps! Please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions, I love the cardiovascular system! :)
Sami F.
Is the pulmonary circulation has something to do with the lungs?01/26/21