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a smooth muscle fiber encircling a true capillary where it originates from the arterial capillary, which can open and close the capillary entrance.Medical dictionary. 2011.
Precapillary sphincter — The precapillary sphincter is a band of smooth muscle that adjusts the blood flow into each capillary. Blood flow in a capillary changes as vasomotion occurs. The entire capillary bed may be bypassed by blood flow through arteriovenous… … Wikipedia
sphincter — A muscle that encircles a duct, tube, or orifice in such a way that its contraction constricts the lumen or orifice. SYN: musculus s. [TA], s. muscle [TA]. [G. sphinkter, a band or lace] s. of ampulla s. of hepatopancreatic ampulla. anatomic s.… … Medical dictionary
Sphincter — A sphincter is an anatomical structure, or a circular muscle, that normally maintains constriction of a natural body passage or orifice and which relaxes as required by normal physiological functioning. Sphincters are found in many animals; there … Wikipedia
Capillary — Capillaries are the smallest of a body s blood vessels, measuring 5 10 μm in diameter, which connect arterioles and venules, and enable the interchange of water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and many other nutrient and waste chemical substances… … Wikipedia
Acrocyanosis (benign) — DiseaseDisorder infobox Name = Acrocyanosis ICD10 = ICD10|I|73.8| |i|00 ICD9 = ICD9|443.89 Caption = DiseasesDB = 29444 ICDO = OMIM = MedlinePlus = eMedicineSubj = eMedicineTopic = eMedicine mult = MeshName = MeshNumber = Acrocyanosis refers to a … Wikipedia
Metarteriole — A Metarteriole (or arterial capillary) is a short vessel that links arterioles and venules. Instead of a continuous tunica media, they have individual smooth muscle cells placed a short distance apart, each forming a precapillary sphincter that… … Wikipedia
