artery

Also known as arteria, a., arteries

An artery () is a blood vessel in humans and most other animals that takes oxygenated blood away from the heart in the systemic circulation to one or more parts of the body. Exceptions that carry deoxygenated blood are the pulmonary arteries in the pulmonary circulation that carry blood to the lungs for oxygenation, and the umbilical arteries in the fetal circulation that carry deoxygenated blood to the placenta. It consists of a multi-layered artery wall wrapped into a tube-shaped channel.

AI overview

An artery is a blood vessel that carries oxygenated blood away from the heart to the rest of your body, though some arteries (like those leading to the lungs) carry deoxygenated blood instead. Arteries matter because they are essential for delivering oxygen-rich blood throughout your body, which keeps your tissues and organs alive and functioning.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Anatomy.Name: Artery
Anatomy.Latin: arteria (plural: arteriae)
Anatomy.Greek: ἀρτηρία
Anatomy.Image: Artery.svg
Anatomy.Caption: Diagram of an artery
Anatomy.System: Circulatory system

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

1,375,159 papers

The artery of Wollschlaeger and Wollschlaeger.ReviewJournal of clinical neuroscience : official journal of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia · 2024Atallah O, Wawi O, Ergen A et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.jocn.2023.11.030
Embryology of the vertebral artery and variants of the adult.ReviewNeuro-Chirurgie · 2024Bonasia S, Di Caterino F, Robert TDOI: 10.1016/j.neuchi.2023.101517
Spontaneous intracranial vertebral artery dissections presenting with subarachnoid hemorrhage.ReviewNeuro-Chirurgie · 2024Chaalala C, El Hage G, Gilbert V et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.neuchi.2023.101526
Sphenoidal artery: review of the literature and analysis of a dissected arterially injected fetal orbit.ReviewSurgical and radiologic anatomy : SRA · 2021Kier EL, Mahajan A, Conlogue GJDOI: 10.1007/s00276-020-02663-9
The anterior communicating artery variants: a meta-analysis with a proposed classification system.Surgical and radiologic anatomy : SRA · 2024Triantafyllou G, Tudose RC, Tsiouris C et al.DOI: 10.1007/s00276-024-03336-7
The petrosal artery and its variations: a comprehensive review and anatomical study with application to skull base surgery and neurointerventional procedures.ReviewFolia morphologica · 2023Yu A, Dupont G, Nerva J et al.DOI: 10.5603/FM.a2022.0056
The middle anorectal artery: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 880 patients/1905 pelvic sides.Clinical anatomy (New York, N.Y.) · 2022Zarzecki MP, Ostrowski P, Wałęga P et al.DOI: 10.1002/ca.23898
The McConnell Capsular Artery: Anatomical Insights and Neurosurgical Considerations.ReviewJournal of neurological surgery. Part A, Central European neurosurgery · 2025Almelwy YF, Badary A, Hernández-Hernández A et al.DOI: 10.1055/a-2479-9867

via PubMed

Wikidata facts

Image: Artery.svg

Show 3 more facts

Commons category: Arteries
equivalent class: schema.org/Artery
NCI Thesaurus ID: C12372

Sources (6)

via Wikidata · CC0

~11 min read

Article

9 sections

Contents

Structure
Development
Function
Aorta
Capillaries
Clinical significance
History
References
External links

Arteries contrast with veins, which carry deoxygenated blood back towards the heart; or in the pulmonary and fetal circulations carry oxygenated blood to the lungs and fetus respectively.