The Heart is:

● Located between the lungs in the centre and to the left of the midline
● It is cone shaped and about the size of your own clenched fist
● Can never stop pumping
Primary Function is to drive blood through the cardiovascular system delivering :
● Oxygenated blood to the tissues and organs of the body sufficient for their metabolic needs
● Deoxygenated blood to the lungs for gaseous exchange

* Cardiovascular system *

The average human adult has 4-6 litres of blood repeatedly cycled throughout the body in a closed
circulatory system.
It is called a closed system because the blood is contained within the heart and blood vessels at all
time and blood always flows in a forward direction.

*Structures *

Human heart is divided into 4 chambers

● 2 Atria and 2 Ventricles these are hollow chambers which receive blood
● They are surrounded by myocardial cells which are able to relax and contract
The cardiovascular system consists of circuits:
● Pulmonary circuit provides blood flow between the heart and lungs
● Systemic circuit allows blood to flow to and from the rest of the body
 ● Coronary circuit provides blood to the heart
The heart valves ensure that blood flows

in one direction through the systems

What Are the Parts of the Heart?

The heart has four chambers — two on top and two on bottom:

The two bottom chambers are the right ventricle and the left ventricle. These pump blood out of the
heart. A wall called the interventricular septum is between the two ventricles.The two top chambers
are the right atrium and the left atrium. They receive the blood entering the heart. A wall called
the interatrial septum is between the atria.

The atria are separated from the ventricles by the atrioventricular valves:

The tricuspid valve separates the right atrium from the right ventricle.The mitral valve separates the
left atrium from the left ventricle.

Two valves also separate the ventricles from the large blood vessels that carry blood leaving
the heart:

The pulmonic valve is between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery, which carries blood to
the lungs.The aortic valve is between the left ventricle and the aorta, which carries blood to the
body .

The function of the right heart is to collect deoxygenated blood in the right atrium of the body
through the superior vena cava, inferior vena cava, and coronary sinus, then pump it through the
tricuspid valve into the right ventricle, and then pump it into the pulmonary artery through the
pulmonary valve to reach the lungs where carbon dioxide is replaced oxygen in the lungs. This
occurs through the process of passive diffusion. In the left heart, the oxygenated blood is returned
to the left atrium via the pulmonary vein. It is then pumped into the left ventricle through the
bicuspid (mitral) valve into the aorta into the systemic circulation. Ultimately the exchange occurs
through the systemic capillary circulation with tissue fluids and body cells, and the cells obtain
oxygen and nutrients for their own metabolism and exchange them with carbon dioxide and other
waste products from the cell. In this case, oxygen and nutrients leave the systemic capillaries into
the cell for use in its metabolic processes, and carbon dioxide and other waste products enter the
blood .

The ventricles are stronger and thicker than the atria, and the muscle wall surrounding the left
ventricle is thicker than the wall surrounding the right ventricle because of the greater force needed
to pump blood through the systemic circulation. The aorta facilitates blood circulation primarily by
allowing continuous venous flow to the heart, preventing the intermittent inertia of venous flow that
may occur with each ventricular contraction .