Carotid Body

The carotid body (carotid glomus or glomus caroticum) is a small cluster of chemoreceptors and supporting cells located near the fork (bifurcation) of the carotid artery (which runs along both sides of the throat).

The carotid body detects changes in the composition of arterial blood flowing through it, mainly the partial pressure of oxygen, but also of carbon dioxide. Furthermore, it is also sensitive to changes in pH and temperature.

Read more about Carotid Body:  Composition, Function, Disorders

Famous quotes containing the word body:

    A man must be clothed with society, or we shall feel a certain bareness and poverty, as of a displaced and unfurnished member. He is to be dressed in arts and institutions, as well as in body garments. Now and then a man exquisitely made can live alone, and must; but coop up most men and you undo them.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)