Heart location in the human body

What Side Is Your Heart On?

Your heart has 4 chambers. The upper chambers are called the left and right atria, and the lower chambers are called the left and right ventricles.


  • 10 Things You May Not Know About Your Heart;
  • Picture of the Heart;
  • county indiana marion marriage record.

A wall of muscle called the septum separates the left and right atria and the left and right ventricles. The left ventricle is the largest and strongest chamber in your heart. Electrical impulses from your heart muscle the myocardium cause your heart to contract. This electrical signal begins in the sinoatrial SA node, located at the top of the right atrium.

Although the SA node sends electrical impulses at a certain rate, your heart rate may still change depending on physical demands, stress, or hormonal factors. The tricuspid valve and the mitral valve make up the atrioventricular AV valves, which connect the atria and the ventricles.

Heart Anatomy

The pulmonary semi-lunar valve separates the right ventricle from the pulmonary artery, and the aortic valve separates the left ventricle from the aorta. The heartstrings, or chordae tendinae, anchor the valves to heart muscles. In the pulmonary circuit, deoxygenated blood leaves the right ventricle of the heart via the pulmonary artery and travels to the lungs, then returns as oxygenated blood to the left atrium of the heart via the pulmonary vein.

In the systemic circuit, oxygenated blood leaves the body via the left ventricle to the aorta, and from there enters the arteries and capillaries where it supplies the body's tissues with oxygen. Deoxygenated blood returns via veins to the venae cavae, re-entering the heart's right atrium.


  • chicago police for sex offender information.
  • adult personals pix search free group.
  • level 3 sex offender in wv.
  • pre-marriage counsil weekend siminars florida.
  • More health news + advice?
  • Medical Learning Library?
  • free vehicle history based on vin.

Of course, the heart is also a muscle, so it needs a fresh supply of oxygen and nutrients, too, Phillips said. The left main coronary artery, on one side of the aorta, branches into the left anterior descending artery and the left circumflex artery. The right coronary artery branches out on the right side of the aorta.

surface anatomy of the heart

A heart attack is distinct from cardiac arrest, which is a sudden loss of heart function that usually occurs as a result of electrical disturbances of the heart rhythm. A heart attack can lead to cardiac arrest, but the latter can also be caused by other problems, he said. In one day your heart transports all your blood around your body about times.

Your right ventricle pumps blood to your lungs and your left ventricle pumps blood all around your body.

Your Heart & Blood Vessels | Cleveland Clinic

The muscular walls of the left ventricle are thicker than those of the right ventricle, making it a much more powerful pump. For this reason, it is easiest to feel your heart beating on the left side of your chest. Unlike skeletal muscle cells that need to be stimulated by nerve impulses to contract, cardiac muscle cells can contract all by themselves.

However, if left to their own devices, cardiac muscle cells in different areas of your heart would beat at different rates.


  • jamie c fennell death records.
  • Medical Illustrations;
  • Heart valves - YourHeartValve.
  • ACLS Online Library: Anatomy of the Heart;
  • people finder by old phone number.

Muscle cells in your ventricles would beat more slowly than those in your atria. Without some kind of unifying function, your heart would be an inefficient, uncoordinated pump. So, your heart has a tiny group of cells known as the sinoatrial node that is responsible for coordinating heart beat rate across your heart.

Symptoms vary between men and women

It starts each heartbeat and sets the heartbeat pace for the whole heart. Damage to the sinoatrial node can result in a slower heart rate. When this is a problem, an operation is often performed to install an artificial pacemaker, which takes over the role of the sinoatrial node. Without nervous system control, your heart would beat around times per minute.

Latest news

However, when you are relaxed, your parasympathetic nervous system sets a resting heart beat rate of about 70 beats per minute, resting heart rate is usually between beats per minute in women and beats per minute in men. When you exercise or feel anxious your heart beats more quickly, increasing the flow of oxygenated blood to your muscles. This is triggered by your sympathetic nervous system. Your heart rate also increases in response to hormones like adrenalin. On average, your maximum heart rate is beats per minute minus your age.