General Science Bullet – Systems of the Human Body – Capsule 2
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Structure and working of the human heart
- Pericardium, a double-walled sac encases the heart and helps in securing it in the chest cavity.
- The outer layer, parietal pericardium and the inner layer, serous pericardium contain a pericardial fluid that acts as a shock absorber, lubricates the heart during contractions and movement of the diaphragm.
- The heart’s outer wall consists of three layers, namely epicardium (outermost), myocardium (middle) and pericardium (innermost).
- Internally, the heart is divided into two sides, right and left by two muscular partitions. These two sides work independently yet in unison as a double pump.
- The human heart has four chambers. The upper two called atria/auricles and the lower two are called ventricles.
- The right atrium and the right ventricle together make the right side of the heart and the left atrium and left ventricle make the left portion of the heart. The two sides are separated by a wall of muscle called septum.
- The left atrium receives oxygenated blood via pulmonary veins. The blood is then passed on to the left ventricle and further to the aorta (largest artery of the human body) that supplies oxygenated blood to the body tissues.
- The right atrium receives deoxygenated blood, which is passed on to the right ventricle and travels to the lungs via pulmonary artery. After oxygenation, blood returns to the left atrium to repeat the pumping process.
Important facts about the human heart:
- The human heart beats around 1, 00,000 times a day.
- The heart pumps around 2,000 gallons of blood everyday.
- The duration of one cardiac cycle (contraction and relaxation) is 0.8 seconds.
- Since the heart has its own electrical impulse, it can continue to beat outside the body if supplied with sufficient oxygen.
- Echocardiogram is the equipment that is used to create an internal image of the heart using ultrasound waves.
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