Carotid body

Carotid body
Carotid body
	Section of part of human carotid body. Highly magnified. Numerous blood vessels are seen in section among the cells.
	Diagram showing the origins of the main branches of the carotid arteries.
Details
Nerve	Branch of glossopharyngeal nerve to carotid sinus
Identifiers
Latin	glomus caroticum
MeSH	D002344
TA98	A12.2.04.007
TA2	3886
FMA	50095
	Anatomical terminology

The carotid body is a small cluster of chemoreceptor cells and supporting sustentacular cells situated at bifurcation of each common carotid artery in its tunica externa.^[1]^[2]

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

^ "Carotid Body and Carotid Sinus -- General Information". Iowa Head and Neck Protocols. medicine.uiowa.edu. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
^ Hall, John Edward (20 May 2015). Guyton and Hall textbook of medical physiology (13th ed.). Philadelphia, PA. ISBN 978-1-4557-7005-2. OCLC 900869748.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)