Monday, March 8, 2010

Heart Valves

Blood is pumped through the chambers, aided by four heart valves. The valves open and close to let the blood flow in only one direction.

Source : http://www.csmc.edu/heartcenter/images/aorticvalve_l.jpg

-The tricuspid valve is between the right atrium and right ventricle.
-The pulmonary or pulmonic valve is between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery.
-The mitral valve is between the left atrium and left ventricle.
-The aortic valve is between the left ventricle and the aorta.




Pumping Cycle

The sturcture of the heart allows blood to move through the circulatory system in only one direction.
Your heart muscle will pump for more than 2 billion times during your lifetime.
Blood enters the heart's right and left atria from the
VEINS ( A blood vessel that carries the blood back to the heart ).
When the atria begins to pump or squeeze the right and left ventricles are relaxed and are not pumping. These chambers receive blood from the atria.
Source: http://www.ihcworld.com/histowiki/fetch.php?w=&h=&cache=cache&media=heart_diastole.png
Then, the ventricles start to pump blood into two large
ARTERIES (A blood vessel that carries blood back to the heart leading to the body and lungs) .
When the venticles are pumping the atria are relaxed.Blood returning from the body enters the atria and the entire pumping cycle begins again.

Source: http://www.mountnittany.org/assets/images/krames/106422.jpg

How do the ventricles receive blood?

Friday, March 5, 2010

Introduction

The heart is a muscle that pumps blood through the body.
Because it has two sides, we can think of the heart as two separate pumps, one on the left and one on the right.
Each side of the heart has a small chamber on the top: atria, and a large chamber on the bottom: ventricles. The atria and ventricles are divided into right and left sections. When the muscles of the ventricles squeeze blood is pushed out.

Source:
(National heart lung and blood institute
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/heartmurmur/hmurmur_heartworks.html)

How many chambers does the heart have?

Monday, March 1, 2010

Welcome

Welcome to the human heart's blog. We will use this blog to share information and post announcements.