Anatomy, Head and Neck: Carotid Bodies

Excerpt

The carotid body is a 2 to 6 mm, round bilateral sensory organ in the peripheral nervous system located in the adventitia of the bifurcation of the common carotid artery. These peripheral chemosensory cells play a vital, physiologic role in the human body as they maintain physiologic homeostasis and regulation of sustaining life. These sensory chemoreceptors act to detect chemical changes in the body through the interaction with surrounding arterial blood flow by monitoring blood gas tension and pH. Specifically, the carotid bodies can detect changes in the quality in the composition of arterial blood flow, such as pH, CO2, temperature, and partial pressure of arterial oxygen.

The effect in which these structures play an essential physiologic role is in their physiologic response following changes in the vasculature by signaling the rest of the peripheral nervous system. The carotid bodies also possess an interdependent regulatory relationship with other regulatory organs, such as the kidney.