L4.2.3: Chambers and Associated Great Vessels

• CHAMBERS AND ASSOCIATED GREAT VESSELS

  ● Right & Left Atria

  ● Right & Left Ventricles

  ● Septum that divides each chamber

  ○ Interatrial Septum

  ○ Interventricular Septum

  ● “Great Vessels”

  ○ Superior & Inferior Vena Cava

  ○ Pulmonary Artery

  ○ Pulmonary Veins

  ○ Aorta
• ● Right & Left Atria

  ○ Receiving chambers

  ○ Assist with filling the ventricles

  ○ Blood enters under low pressure
• ● Right & Left Ventricles

  ○ Discharging chambers

  ○ Thick-walled pumps of the heart

  ○ During contraction, blood is propelled out of the heart and into circulation
• ● Septum that divides each chamber:

  ○ Interatrial Septum

  ■ Separates the two atria longitudinally

  ■ Fossa ovalis — oval-shaped depression; remnant of an opening in the fetal heart (foramen ovale)

  ○ Interventricular Septum

  ■ Separates the two ventricles longitudinally
• ● “Great Vessels” — a term for large arteries and veins directly connected with the heart
• Superior & Inferior Vena Cava

  • Receives the oxygen-poor blood and pumps it into the pulmonary trunk
• Pulmonary Artery

  Carry blood to lungs for it to be oxygenated
• Pulmonary Veins

  • Passage of the oxygenated blood back to the left side of the heart
• Aorta

  • Where blood is pumped after the oxygenated blood returns to the left atrium and into the left ventricle
• BLOOD FLOW IN THE HEART

  Superior & inferior vena cava → right atrium → tricuspid valve → right ventricle → pulmonary valve → pulmonary trunk → pulmonary arteries → lungs → pulmonary veins → bicuspid valve → left ventricle → aortic valve → ascending aorta