The speed of blood may vary from one place to another and may be quite low in the tiniest vessels compared to the biggest one. What is the speed of blood while exiting a normal human heart?
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theforestecologist
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Manu H
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1This question could be read in a more interesting way: given an injection in the veins or my left arm, how long would it take to reach my brain, heart, liver? Or, if some organ sheds some hormone, what time will it take to reach other organs? – Feb 15 '16 at 18:58
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1@GyroGearloose For the round time there is an old paper which I can add later. They injected substances into the arm and measured when they could find them again. – Chris Feb 15 '16 at 19:00
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http://biology.stackexchange.com/q/43360/21844 asks at least part of my followup question. – Feb 16 '16 at 12:48
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As you note yourself, this depends strongly on the vessel that you are studying. I found this table in reference 1:
It lists speeds between 34 and 45 cm/sec for the inferior vena cava and 12 to 16 cm/sec for the superior vena cava.
For the capillaries I found this table in reference 2, which measured the blood velocity in cats. Nevertheless I think this approach is also useful for an approximation for humans since the capillary system should be comparable:
It lists velocities between 0,2 and 2,7 mm/sec.
References:
Chris
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