The heart: chambers, valves and coronaries
The anatomy of the heart: the four chambers and what enters and leaves them, the four valves, the septum, the pericardium, the coronary arteries and their territories, and what clinical practice draws from them (infarction, murmur, tamponade).
- 36 cards
- 3 topics
- Free
The outline, topic by topic
Each topic is weighted the way the exam weighs it.
- Concepts
- Scenarios
- Understand
A few cards from the deck
Right atrium: what is it?
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The chamber that receives oxygen-poor blood from the superior and inferior venae cavae and the coronary sinus.
It houses the sinoatrial node, which sets the rhythm.
Occlusion of the LAD causes an infarction of which region?
- The front wall of the left ventricle and the front of the septum
- The inferior wall of the left ventricle and the back of the septum
- The lateral wall of the left ventricle and the left atrium
- The right ventricle and the sinoatrial node
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The front wall of the left ventricle and the front of the septum
That is the LAD's territory, hence its severity: a lot of left ventricular muscle.
Right ventricle: what is it?
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The chamber that pumps blood to the lungs through the pulmonary trunk.
Its wall is thin: the pulmonary circulation is at low pressure.
Why is the left ventricular wall three times thicker than the right?
- It must overcome the systemic pressure, far higher than the lungs'
- It ejects far more blood per beat than the right ventricle
- It contracts for longer than the right one at each beat
- It must suck blood in from the four pulmonary veins
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It must overcome the systemic pressure, far higher than the lungs'
Both ventricles pump the same flow, but not at the same pressure.
Left atrium: what is it?
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The chamber that receives oxygen-rich blood from the four pulmonary veins.
It is the heart's most posterior chamber, against the oesophagus.
Blood returning from the lungs arrives in…
- The right atrium
- The left atrium
- The right ventricle
- The aorta
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The left atrium
The four pulmonary veins drain into the left atrium.