Muscular artery

A muscular artery (or distributing artery) is a medium-sized artery that draws blood from an elastic artery and branches into "resistance vessels" including small arteries and arterioles. Their walls contain larger number of smooth muscles, allowing them to contract and expand depending on peripheral blood demand.^[1]

This contrasts to the mechanism of elastic arteries, which use their elastic properties to store the energy generated by the heart's contraction for a brief moment (elastic recoil).

Examples of muscular arteries include the radial artery, femoral artery and the splenic artery.

Muscular arteries, along with elastic arteries, are common sites for atherosclerosis.^[2]

^ Ostadfar, Ali (2016). Biofluid mechanics : principles and applications. Academic Press, Elsevier Science. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-12-802408-9.
^ Cite error: The named reference Junqueira was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[1] Ostadfar, Ali (2016). Biofluid mechanics : principles and applications. Academic Press, Elsevier Science. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-12-802408-9.

[Junqueira-2] Cite error: The named reference Junqueira was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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