Your cardiovascular system consists of your heart and your vessels.

Your cardiovascular system is

responsible for delivering nutrients as well as oxygen to your body and removes waste products. It is
important for you as future health professionals or future nurses to know the location and shape of the
heart in the thoracic cavity and its functions. This knowledge enables you to place a stethoscope to hear
heart sounds, to place chest leads for electrocardiogram, or when to administer a cardiopulmonary
resuscitation.

Structure and Function of the Heart:

Your heart is divided into four chambers. The upper part is called the atrium which receives blood from
veins and functions as reservoir where the blood returning from the veins collects before it enters the
ventricles. So, your right atrium collects deoxygenated blood from your superior vena cava and inferior
vena cava and the coronary sinus which drains blood from most of the heart muscle. The left atrium
receives oxygenated blood from the four pulmonary veins which drain blood from your lungs.

The one that divides the heart into right and left is called the interventricular septum.

The lower part is called the ventricle which act as your major pumping chambers. The right ventricle
pumps blood into the pulmonary trunk, and the left ventricle pumps blood into the aorta then goes to
the rest of your body.

The wall of your left ventricle is thicker than the wall of the right ventricle, and the wall of your left
ventricle contracts more forcefully and generates a greater blood pressure than the wall of the right
ventricle. Your left ventricle contracts more because it pumps blood to the rest of your body. So the
higher pressure generated by your left ventricle moves blood to the systemic circulation whereas the
lower pressure generated by the right ventricle moves blood through the smaller pulmonary circulation.

Valves:

Tricuspid valve – located between the right atrium and left ventricle

Bicuspid or mitral valve – between left atrium and left ventricle

These valves play a special role in your heart because they allow blood to flow from the atria and into
the ventricles but prevent it from flowing back to the atria.

The aortic and pulmonic valves are known as the semilunar valves, whereas the tricuspid and mitral
valves are referred to as the atrioventricular valves.

Cardiac Cycle:

The myocardium or the fibers of the cardiac muscle for two intertwining networks called the syncytia.
These structures allow the atria and also ventricles to contract or pump synchronously when excited or
initiated by the same impulse. “A hollow…”

Kun napapansin niyo mas nauuna pag contract it atria kaysa ha ventricle this is because in the pumping
cycle, the heart relaxes long enough to ensure adequate filling and the more completely it fills, the
subsequent or the next contraction will be stronger. This is because your heart muscles are stretched
due to the increase in blood volume and then returns to its normal size when the blood volume
decreases. To give you an analogy….

When the term systole and diastole are used alone, they refer to ventricular contraction and ventricular
relaxation. As I mentioned earlier, the ventricles contain more cardiac muscle than the atria and produce
far greater pressures which force blood to circulate throughout the vessels of the body.

So, the major events of the cardiac cycle are as follows:

 Systole – at the beginning of systole, contraction of the ventricle pushes blood toward the atria
causing the AV valves to close as the pressure increases. The first heart sound.
 As systole continues, the increasing pressure in the ventricles exceeds the pressure in the
pulmonary trunk and aorta, the semilunar valves are forced open and blood is ejected into the
pulmonary trunk and aorta.
 Diastole – at the beginning of diastole, the pressure in the ventricles decreases below the
pressure in the aorta and pulmonary trunk. The semilunar valves close and prevent blood from
flowing back into the ventricles. The second heart sound.
 As diastole continues, the pressure continues to decline in the ventricles until atrial pressures
are greater than ventricular pressures. Then the AV valves open, and blood flows directly from
the atria into the relaxed ventricles. The AV valves open, and blood flows into the ventricles.
The ventricles fill to approximately 70% of their volume.
 At the end of ventricular diastole, the atria contract and then relax. Atrial systole forces more
blood to flow into the ventricles to complete their filling. The semilunar valves remain closed.

Cardiac Conduction:

Both are important, but the heart is much more important. (Read the ppt)
Your heart can generate its own impulses that result in contraction, meaning your heart does not need
the brain to function, it works independently. In such case, yung mga brain dead na patient, they are still
considered alive because their heart is still beating, it is still pumping blood, it is still delivering oxygen
and nutrients to the rest of your body.

It pag contract hit atria tas ventricles naton is primarily due to the cardiac muscle cells in the heart wall
which we call as the conduction system of the heart.

The sinoatrial node, atrioventricular node, atrioventricular bundle, right and left bundle branches and
the purkinje fibers constitute the conduction system of the heart.

 The SA node is the heart’s pacemaker which initiates the contraction of the heart. Action
potentials or the impulses originate from the SA node and spread over the right and left atria,
causing them to contract. The SA node produces action potentials at a faster rate than other
areas of the heart and it also has a larger number of calcium channels. In addition, the sodium
and calcium channels in the SA node open and close at a rhythmic rate.
This is why your heart rate can be affected by certain drugs like your calcium channel blockers
for example. Calcium channel blocker drugs or agents slow the heart by decreasing the rate of
action potential production in your SA node.
  A second area of the heart, the AV node which is located in the lower portion of the right
atrium. When the action potentials reach the AV node, they spread slowly through it and then
into a bundle of specialized cardiac muscle called the atrioventricular bundle. The slow rate of
action potential conduction in the AV node allows the atria to complete their contraction before
action potentials are delivered to the ventricles.
 After action potentials pass through the AV node, they are rapidly transmitted through the AV
bundle

Automaticity: