Learn the Basic Heart Anatomy

The heart has always been associated with the matters of love. Come Valentine’s Day and you will encounter red hearts everywhere in all possible sizes. But the shape is always the same. For if you try to bring the exact resemblance with the real heart inside our body, you will have to draw it in a different way altogether and it may not appear to be too poetic in the eyes of your valentine. That is because the actual structure of human heart resembles more an upside-down pear.

Just think about it: from the moment we come out of our mothers’ womb until the moment we take our last breath, the heart goes on performing its duties tirelessly. All the time we feel the usual lubb dup rhythm in our heart beats inside our chests, but did you know that during an average lifespan, the heart beats more than two and a half billion times! It can never afford to pause for a moment to rest.

Heart is the pumping station and by its pumping action it keeps on providing the power needed for the processes of life. This enormous working ability has always created a feeling of awe and mystery in the minds of common men. However with the advancement of medical sciences we have come to know that there is nothing mysterious surrounding the human heart. It is just another organs of human body… a fist-sized, shell like muscular organ. Let us describe the major parts of a human heart.

Left Atrium â€" It is the left upper chamber of the heart. The oxygen-rich blood from the lungs is received by this part through the pulmonary vein.

Left Ventricle â€" It is the left lower chamber of the heart. It pumps down blood into the aorta through the aortic valve.

Right Atrium â€" It is the right upper chamber of the heart that receives oxygen-poor blood from the body through the inferior vena cava and the superior vena cava.

Right Ventricle â€" It is the right lower chamber of the heart that pumps down the blood into the pulmonary artery.

Aorta â€" It is the biggest and longest artery in the body. It performs the duty of transport oxygen-rich blood from the left ventricle of the heart to the entire body.

Inferior Vena Cava â€" It is actually a large vein that carries oxygen less blood to the right atrium from the lower half of the body.

Pulmonary Artery â€" This is the blood vessel that takes the oxygen-poor blood from the right ventricle of the heart to the lungs.

Pulmonary Valve â€" It is like a flap between the right ventricle and the
Pulmonary Artery- The valve opens as the ventricle contracts and blood rushes into the pulmonary artery. The valves close, as the ventricle relaxes. Thus the back-flow of blood from the pulmonary artery to the right atrium is prevented.

These are the main parts of human heart that will give you a basic idea about the complex function of heart.