Neck uterus. Thus the adjective "cervical" may refer either to the neck (as in "cervical vertebrae" or "cervical lymph nodes") or to the uterine cervix (as in "cervical cap" or "cervical cancer"). The neck contains vessels that link structures in the head to the body. In humans these structures include part of the esophagus, larynx, trachea, thyroid and parathyroid glands, lymph nodes, and the first part of the spinal cord. Major blood vessels present include the carotid arteries and the jugular veins. Cervical lymph nodes surround the blood vessels. The thyroid gland and parathyroid gland are endocrine glands involved in the
Cardiac function curve The higher pressures normally occur only in disease, in conditions such as heart failure, where the heart is unable to pump forward all the blood returning to it and so the pressure builds up in the right atrium and the great veins. Swollen neck veins are often an indicator of this type of heart failure. At low right atrial pressures this graph serves as a graphic demonstration of the Frank–Starling mechanism, that is as more blood is returned to the heart, more blood is pumped from it without extrinsic signals. In vivo however, extrinsic factors such as an increase in