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Pulmonary artery



Artery: Pulmonary artery
Diagram of the alveoli with both cross-section and external view.
Latin truncus pulmonalis, arteria pulmonalis
Gray's subject #141 543
Source right ventricle
Vein pulmonary vein
Precursor truncus arteriosus
MeSH Pulmonary+Artery
Dorlands/Elsevier t_20/12826098

The pulmonary arteries carry blood from the heart to the lungs. They are the only arteries (other than umbilical arteries in the fetus) that carry deoxygenated blood.

In the human heart, the pulmonary trunk (pulmonary artery or main pulmonary artery) begins at the base of the right ventricle. It is short and wide - approximately 5 cm (2 inches) in length and 3 cm (1.2 inches) in diameter. It then branches into two pulmonary arteries (left and right), which deliver deoxygenated blood to the corresponding lung.

Role in disease

Pulmonary hypertension occurs alone and as a consequence of a number of lung diseases. It can be a consequence of heart disease (Eisenmenger's syndrome) but equally a cause (right-ventricular heart failure); it also occurs as a consequence of pulmonary embolism and scleroderma. It is characterised by reduced exercise tolerance. Severe forms, generally, have a dismal prognosis.

Additional images

See also

 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Pulmonary_artery". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
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