How the heart works

The Cardiac Cycle

The cardiac cycle

Each heartbeat is known as one cardiac cycle. This can be divided into three stages; muscles in the walls of
both atria contract - atrial systole (0.1 sec) both ventricles contract ventricular systole (0.3 sec) all chambers relax diastole (0.4 sec)

Atrial systole
Atria relaxed; elastic recoil following previous contraction cause the volume to increase so pressure falls below that in the vena cava and pulmonary vein so blood flows in to fill them so pressure begins to increase.

When the pressure in the atria exceeds that in the relaxing ventricles (again elastic recoil after the previous contraction increases the volume so the pressure falls) blood will flow through to open the AV valves to fill the ventricles

The muscles in the wall of the atria to contract which results in a decrease in volume which increases the pressure to force more blood into the ventricles. The atria empty. The ventricles fill.

Ventricular systole
The muscles in the walls of the ventricle contract, which decrease the volume and increases the pressure

When the pressure of the blood in the ventricles exceeds that in the atria the AV valves shut When the pressure of the blood exceeds that in the arteries blood flows out of the ventricles, opening the semilunar valves, into the arteries

Diastole
The atria and ventricle muscle relax; elastic recoil causes the volume to increase and the pressure to drop again. When the pressure in the ventricles is lower than that in the arteries the blood makes the semilunar valves close.

Heart sounds
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/medther/Cardiolo gy/ms.htmhttp://www.dundee.ac.uk/medth er/Cardiology/ms.htm

 Total time for one cardiac cycle = 0.8 sec 75 beats per minute

Key points to remember:

The blood flow opens and closes the valves (they cannot do it on their own) Contraction of the muscles decreases the volume of the chambers to increase the pressure which is what makes the blood flow.