When blood flows into the right atrium from the body, it contains..
My question/answer:
I know that the oxygen is poor in the right atrium. But what about the carbon dioxide in there?
Carbon is going in through the left and out to the right,
wrong I guess.
To determine the level of carbon dioxide in the right atrium, we need to understand the pathway of blood flow in the heart and how gases are exchanged.
When blood flows into the right atrium from the body, it typically carries deoxygenated blood. Deoxygenated blood has a high level of carbon dioxide because it is a waste product produced by cells during cellular respiration.
The deoxygenated blood enters the right atrium through the superior and inferior vena cavae. From the right atrium, it is then pumped into the right ventricle, which contracts to push blood into the pulmonary artery.
The pulmonary artery carries the deoxygenated blood to the lungs, where gas exchange occurs. In the lungs, oxygen diffuses into the blood while carbon dioxide, as a waste product, diffuses from the blood into the lungs to be exhaled. This process is known as external respiration.
Therefore, by the time blood reaches the right atrium, it has already undergone external respiration in the lungs, resulting in a lower level of carbon dioxide than it had before reaching the lungs. That's why the carbon dioxide content in the right atrium is higher compared to the oxygen content, but still lower than the original level coming from the body.
In summary, when blood flows into the right atrium from the body, it contains a higher level of carbon dioxide compared to oxygen, but lower than the initial levels in the body before entering the lungs.