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By printing and/or reading this article, you agree that you accept all terms and conditions of use, as specified online. The Heart and Cardiovascular System
Arteries carry oxygen-rich blood away from the heart. The main artery from the heart is the aorta. Veins carry oxygen-poor blood back to your heart. At the lungs, it is the pulmonary artery that brings oxygen-poor blood into the lungs and the pulmonary vein that carries oxygen-rich blood back to the heart. The heart is divided into four parts or chambers. The top ones are called the left atrium and right atrium and the bottom two are the left ventricle and right ventricle. Blood first enters the heart at the right atrium, passes through the tricuspid valve into the right ventricle. The blood is then sent out through the pulmonary valve to the lungs. The chambers each have a purpose. The atria act as reservoirs for the blood before it moves on to the larger ventricles. The ventricles are the strong pumps of the heart with the left one, the one that pushes blood out to most of the body, being the strongest. These chambers can be damaged by disease, resulting in scarring, weakening of the muscle, thickening of the muscle or hardening of the heart wall. (Read about "Cardiomyopathy") The job of the valves is to keep the blood moving all in one direction, but problems can occur there as well. (Read about "The Heart & Its Valves") You can follow the links below to learn more about the heart and the cardiovascular system along with diseases and conditions that can affect them.
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The cardiovascular system is made up of the heart and the blood vessels, such as the veins and arteries, which move the blood around the body. Your heart is a muscle that is about the size of your fist. It works like a pump and it is always pumping blood throughout the body. The average heart beats 100,000 times a day. Blood carries oxygen from the lungs and nutrients from the digestive system to the cells in the body. The blood then carries waste products back to be removed by the kidneys and carbon dioxide to be removed by the lungs. (Read about "
It picks up oxygen and comes back to the heart at the left atrium. From there it passes through the mitral valve into the left ventricle where it is pushed through the aortic valve and out to the body. The mitral valve differs from the rest of the valves because it is made up of just two flaps; the others have three flaps. Those flaps can also be called leaflets or cusps.
