The pathway of blood flow through the heart

I have here an illustration of the heart for us to keep on track of the flow.

The most important thing I always remind myself is that you need to familiarize the structure and the
parts of the heart so you can easily trace the flow.

There are two sides of the heart. The right side and the left. The right side of the heart takes blood right
to the lungs to get oxygenated. The left side is responsible to the oxygenated blood. It receives
oxygenated blood that has left the lungs throughout the bod.

There are different kind of valves and the job of the valve is to keep blood moving through the heart in
the right direction and to prevent backflow.

Let’s start?

So, oxygen- poor or what we called unoxygenated blood from the body returns to the right atrium of the
heart. Blood from the upper body returns through the superior vena cava; blood from the lower body
returns through the inferior vena cava.

As the right atrium is filled with blood, it contracts, the tricuspid valve opens and the blood is pumped
into the right ventricle. When the right ventricle is full, the tricuspid valve closes to prevent blood from
flowing back to the atrium.

The right ventricle contracts, the pulmonary valve opens and the blood is pumped into pulmonary artery
and to the lungs. The pulmonary valve closes to prevent blood from flowing back into the ventricle.

Meanwhile, oxygen-rich blood from the lungs returns to the left atrium of the heart. As the left atrium is
filled with blood, it contracts, the mitral valve opens and blood is pumped into the left ventricle. This
occurs at the same time as the right atrium pumps blood into the right ventricle on the other side of the
heart.

As the left ventricle is full, the mitral valve closes, the aortic valve opens, the left ventricle contracts and
the oxygen rich blood is pumped into the aorta to reach all parts of the body.

This happens at the same time as the right ventricle pumps blood into the pulmonary artery on the
other side of the heart.

The aortic valve quickly closes to prevent blood from flowing back to the heart. Meanwhile, the atria
have filled with blood and the cycle repeats itself.

 A woman’s heart beats slightly faster than a man’s.

 There is such a thing as a broken heart. Symptoms are similar to a heart attack but the cause is
usually stress and not heart disease.
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