2026 Pre-Veterinary Small Animal Practice Test – Complete Exam Prep

The key idea is the direction of blood flow relative to the heart. Arteries carry blood away from the heart, delivering it to tissues throughout the body. They are built to handle the high pressure of the heart’s contractions, with thick, muscular, and elastic walls.

In contrast, veins return blood to the heart, capillaries are tiny vessels where exchange occurs between blood and tissues, and lymphatics carry lymph rather than blood. So the vessel that carries blood away from the heart is the artery.