HEART

- Your heart contains four main sections (chambers) made of muscle and powered by electrical
impulses.

Anatomy

- Your heart is located in the front of your chest.

- It sits slightly behind and to the left of your sternum (breastbone).
- The parts of your heart are like the parts of a house. Your heart has :
1. Walls
2. Chambers (rooms)
3. Valves (doors)
4. Blood vessels (plumbing)
5. Electrical conduction system (electricity)
- Your heart walls are the muscles that contract (squeeze) and relax to send blood throughout
your body. A layer of muscular tissue called the septum divides your heart walls into the left and
red sides.
- Your heart walls have three layers :
1. Endocardium : Inner layer
2. Myocardium : Muscular middle layer
3. Epicardium : Protective outer layer (is one layer of your pericardium)
Heart Chambers

- Your heart is divided into four chambers. You have two chambers on the top (atrium, plural
atria) and two on the bottom (ventricles)
- Right atrium: Two large veins deliver oxygen-poor blood to your right atrium. The superior vena
cava carries blood from your upper body. The inferior vena cava brings blood from the lower
body. Then the right atrium pumps the blood to your right ventricle.
- Right ventricle: The lower right chamber pumps the oxygen-poor blood to your lungs through
the pulmonary artery. The lungs reload blood with oxygen.
- Left atrium: After the lungs fill blood with oxygen, the pulmonary veins carry the blood to the
left atrium. This upper chamber pumps the blood to your left ventricle.
- Left ventricle: The left ventricle is slightly larger than the right. It pumps oxygen-rich blood to
the rest of your body.

Blood vessels
- Your heart pumps blood through three types of blood vessels:
1. Arteries carry oxygen-rich blood from your heart to your body’s tissues. The exception is
your pulmonary arteries, which go to your lungs.

2. Veins carry oxygen-poor blood back to your heart.

3. Capillaries are small blood vessels where your body exchanges oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor
blood.
- Your heart receives nutrients through a network of coronary arteries.
The Heart Valves

- Four valves regulate blood flow through your heart:

1. The tricuspid valve regulates blood flow between the right atrium and right ventricle.
2. The pulmonary valve controls blood flow from the right ventricle into the pulmonary arteries,
which carry blood to your lungs to pick up oxygen.
3. The mitral valve lets oxygen-rich blood from your lungs pass from the left atrium into the left
ventricle.
4. The aortic valve opens the way for oxygen-rich blood to pass from the left ventricle into the
aorta, your body’s largest artery.

What are the coronary arteries

- The heart receives its own supply of blood from a network of arteries, called the coronary
arteries.
- At rest, a normal heart beats around 50 to 90 times a minute in an adult

What conditions and disorders affect the human heart?

- Common conditions that affect your heart include:

1. Atrial fibrillation (Afib): Irregular electrical impulses in your atrium.
2. Arrhythmia: A heartbeat that is too fast, too slow or beats with an irregular rhythm.
3. Cardiomyopathy: Unusual thickening, enlargement or stiffening of your heart muscle.
4. Congestive heart failure: When your heart is too stiff or too weak to properly pump blood
throughout your body.
5. Coronary artery disease: Plaque buildup that leads to narrow coronary arteries.
6. Heart attack (myocardial infarction): A sudden coronary artery blockage that cuts off oxygen
to part of your heart muscle.
7. Pericarditis: Inflammation in your heart’s lining (pericardium).