The heart is composed of two independent pumping systems, one on the right side, and the other on the

left. Each has two chambers, an atrium and a ventricle. The ventricles are the major pumps in the heart.

The external structures of the heart include the ventricles, atria, arteries, and veins. Arteries carry blood away from the heart while veins carry blood into the heart. The vessels colored blue indicate the transport of blood with relatively low content of oxygen and high content of carbon dioxide. The vessels colored red indicate the transport of blood with relatively high content of oxygen and low content of carbon dioxide.

The right system receives blood from the veins of the whole body. This is "used" blood, which is poor in oxygen and rich in carbon dioxide. The right atrium is the first chamber that receives blood. The chamber expands as its muscles relax to fill with blood that has returned from the body.

The blood enters a second muscular chamber called the right ventricle. The right ventricle is one of the heart's two major pumps. Its function is to pump the blood into the lungs. The lungs restore oxygen to the blood and exchange it with carbon dioxide, which is exhaled

The left system receives blood from the lungs. This blood is now oxygen rich.

The oxygen-rich blood returns through veins coming from the lungs (pulmonary veins) to the heart. It is received from the lungs in the left atrium, the first chamber on the left side. Here, it moves to the left ventricle, a powerful muscular chamber that pumps the blood back out to the body.

The left ventricle is the strongest of the heart's pumps. Its thicker muscles need to perform contractions powerful enough to force the blood to all parts of the body. This strong contraction produces systolic blood pressure (the first and higher number in blood pressure measurement). The lower number (diastolic blood pressure) is measured when the left ventricle relaxes to refill with blood between beats.

Blood leaves the heart through the ascending aorta, the major artery that feeds blood to the entire body.

Valves are muscular flaps that open and close so blood will flow in the right direction. There are four valves in the heart: The tricuspid regulates blood flow between the right atrium and the right ventricle. The pulmonary valve opens to allow blood to flow from the right ventricle to the lungs. The mitral valve regulates blood flow between the left atrium and the left ventricle. The aortic valve allows blood to flow from the left ventricle to the ascending aorta.

The circulatory system (or cardiovascular system) is an organ system that moves nutrients, gases, and wastes to and from cells, helps fight diseases and helps stabilize body temperature and pH to maintain homeostasis. While humans, as well as other vertebrates, have a closed circulatory system (meaning that the blood never leaves the network of arteries, veins and capillaries), some invertebrate groups have open circulatory system. The most primitive animal phyla lack circulatory systems.

Pumps: Circulatory pumps (hearts) are vessels filled with the circulatory fluid or blood When muscles around the container contract they exert pressure on the blood, causing it to flow Heart type: pump produces a high pressure which causes blood to flow out through arteries Muscle pump: muscle contraction squeezes veins, causing blood to flow toward heart

Tubing or pipes = arteries, capillaries, veins Carry blood toward delivery site Sometimes deliver within a few microns of site (capillaries in tissue) Blood vessels may be elastic (which helps keep the pressure high between heartbeats) Vessels may constrict and dilate (which gives control over the flow)

Valves give direction to the flow Blood vessels (including hearts & veins) have flap valves that open in only one direction Example: when pressure increases in veins this opens valves toward the heart and closes those in the other direction -> blood flows toward heart

The purposes of circulation: To deliver food materials and oxygen to the tissues To remove waste products and heat These things can be done by diffusion in a small animal, but in a large animal a circulation is necessary.

 Right

heart: Pumps to lungs: nearly 100% of the flow goes through the lungs Low pressure side: 25 mm Hg systolic pressure in humans Right ventricle has thin walls

 Left

Pumps to rest of body High pressure side: 120 mm Hg systolic pressure in humans Left ventricle has thick walls

heart:

 Right

Help fill the ventricles Very low pressure Thin walls

& and left atria:

 Pumping

of the right & lift sides occurs together

Must be accurately balanced, otherwise fluid may accumulate in the lungs (pulmonary edema)

 The

muscle pump helps return blood to the heart

When muscles contract the veins passing through them are squeezed This causes blood to flow toward the heart Valves prevent flow away from the heart

Your body has approximately 5 liters of blood (large people have a little more, small people a little less) The heart's pumping rate is called the cardiac output: at rest its value is about 5 liters/min

Comparing the volume with the cardiac output you can see that the entire blood volume passes through the heart on the average once every minute All of the output from the right heart goes through the lungs (5 liters/min) The output from the left heart splits and goes through different organs