Arteries Brief Overview
Arteries carry blood from heart to other body tissue in order to supply oxygen and nutrition to the tissues. These are divided into three types: large sized (Aorta, Pulmonary, common carotid, subclavian, renal and common iliac arteries), medium sized (coronary, brachial, radial, ulnar, splenic, femoral, popliteal, tibial, and fibular arteries) and small sized (renal arterioles, celiac, mesenteric, intracranial, and retinal arteries). The structure and functions of these vessels differentiate them from the other vessels that have been explained below. Side by side pathologies associated with them such as Coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease etc. and their management have also been illustrated later in this article.
Structure of Arteries
They are made up of three layers.
Tunica adventitia
It is the outermost covering of a vessel wall, and provides nutrition and support to it.
Tunica media
It is the intermediate layer of arterial wall and made up of smooth muscles primarily. It maintains blood pressure and diameter of the vessel wall.
Tunica intima
It is innermost layer of the vessel wall and made up of endothelium. It directly meets with blood and prevents clotting.
Function of Arteries
They transport blood from heart to the other body tissues that supplies oxygen and nutrient to the body tissues.
Pathologies associated with arteries
The pathologies associated with them entail vasculitis, arteriosclerosis and arterial masses.
Vasculitis (inflammation of the endothelium of these vessels)
It is the inflammation of endothelium that leads to thickening and narrowing of the vessel walls. It damages all kind of vessels such as large sized, medium sized and small sized vessels. Temporal giant cell arteritis and Takayasu arteritis are the examples of large sized vasculitis whereas microscopic polyangitis, burgers disease, wagner gramulatosis and chrug struss syndrome are examples of medium and small sized vasculitis.
Arteriosclerosis (hardening and thickening of the walls)
Arterial masses (benign and malignant tumors of the vessel walls)
Treatment
The treatment includes the management of the underlying causes.