Question

What are some factors that could affect cardiac output?

Answer 1

Cardiac output:

1. The product of stroke volume and heart rate is called the cardiac output.
2. Blood pumped out by each ventricle per minute averages 5000ml/5L in a healthy individual.
3. It is autoregulated by the nodal tissue.
4. Neural signals through the sympathetic nerves can increase heart rate and strength of ventricular contraction, thereby increasing cardiac output.
5. Parasympathetic neural signals decrease the heart rate and rate of conduction of action potential, thereby decreasing the cardiac output.

Factors affecting cardiac output:

1. Hormones
2. Blood volume reflexes
3. Autonomic innervation
4. The temperature of the body
5. Extracellular fluid ion concentration,
6. Age
7. Emotions