Final answer:
Compliance is the ability of a compartment to expand to accommodate increased content, crucial for the proper functioning of arteries and organs like the heart and lungs. Disease can reduce compliance, increasing resistance and pressure, which requires more effort from the heart.
Step-by-step explanation:
The measure of the capacity of a chamber or hollow viscus to expand is called compliance. This term is very important in physiology, especially when discussing the circulatory and respiratory systems. In biology, compliance refers to the ability of any compartment, such as a blood vessel or a lung, to accommodate increased content by expanding. If a structure is compliant, like a balloon, it can easily expand. This is critical for arteries, which need to be compliant enough to accommodate the blood, then recoil to help regulate blood pressure and flow.
The compliance of a vessel can be affected by diseases that stiffen the arteries, resulting in increased vascular resistance, higher pressure and reduced blood flow. Compliance is not only necessary for arteries but also the heart and lungs, enhancing their functionality. In the respiratory system, for instance, the ability of the diaphragm to contract and expand affects the lungs' capacity to facilitate gas exchange by changing their volume.
In summary, compliance is a vital physical property that determines the efficiency of blood vessels and other body compartments in responding to varying internal pressures and volumes.