Human Heart

Human Heart

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It is about the size of your fist

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Weighs 9-12 ounces/250-350 grams

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Beats about 100,000 times a day

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Pumps 2000 gallons of blood a day or 7600 Liters

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Beats more than 2.5 billion times in a lifetime

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Cardiac muscle cells are called cardiomyocytes, and they can live up

to 50 years!

The heart performs the following functions:

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The heart pumps oxygenated blood throughout the body

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Receives deoxygenated blood in the body, and delivers it to the lungs for

removal

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Delivers waste from the body’s cells to the liver and kidneys to be filtered

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Circulates hormones and essential nutrients throughout the body

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Maintains blood pressure

The heart is made up of 4 chambers:

Chambers of the Heart

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The right atrium receives oxygen poor blood from the body, and pumps it to

the right ventricle

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The right ventricle pumps oxygen poor blood from the right atrium to the

lungs

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The left atrium receives oxygenated blood from the lungs, and sends it to the

left ventricle

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The left ventricle pumps oxygenated blood to the body

Valves of the Heart

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Valves are important because they prevent the backwards flow of blood

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The mitral and tricuspid valves move blood from the upper atrium chambers to the lower ventricle chambers

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The aortic valve move blood from the heart to the body

• ​ The pulmonary valve moves blood from the heart to the lungs