Good morning beautiful friends and family! I hope you are doing well and staying cool during these summer months. Welcome back to another Topic Tuesday session.
Today, I wanted to do a fun review of cardiac blood flow. Often times, we think of our heart as a single organ that works to pump blood to the whole body, but you may be surprised to learn that the heart is divided into several different chambers that are vastly different from each other!
Let's start by appreciating this image below - https://tinyurl.com/5d78rzuz
As you can see the heart has several subcomponents. Learning about the natural flow of blood through these chambers was one of my favorite parts of medical school.
First, blood enters the RIGHT ATRIUM via two large veins called the superior and inferior vena cava.
Next, blood flows down the right atrium into the RIGHT VENTRICLE via the tricuspid valve - https://tinyurl.com/3ar6b9cb
After that, blood is pumped up into the pulmonic artery, which feeds blood from the right ventricle into the LUNGS, where it will be fed oxygen
Oxygenated blood leaves the lungs via the pulmonic veins, which drops blood back into the heart by way of the LEFT ATRIUM
Blood flows from the left atrium into the LEFT VENTRICLE flowing through the mitral valve - https://tinyurl.com/43c5xtrj
Finally, blood is pumped up the left ventricle into our friend the mighty AORTA via the aortic valve - https://tinyurl.com/mrx4nhj2
After that, it is pumped throughout the whole body by the Aorta. Pretty neat right?
Here are some general rules to remember -
The right side of the heart carries deoxygenated blood that comes from the entire body
The right side of the heart pumps into the lungs so that blood can receive oxygen
The left side of the heart carries oxygenated blood that came fro, the lungs
The left side of the heart pumps into the aorta which goes on to feed the entire body
In general, the left side of the heart has much higher pressures than the right side because it is tasked with pumping blood with enough force to feed the entire aorta.
Pulmonary arteries carry deoxygenated blood into the lungs
Pulmonary veins carry oxygenated blood into the heart (left atrium)
And that's it for this week's post! I hope you enjoyed this unique topic and learned something new. I will see you soon but until then, remember to #ThinkAorta!!
Adham
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