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The Heart

The Heart


Introduction

You need your heart for all your body needs. It pumps about 2000
gallons of blood a day. It takes about 20 seconds for blood to reach every
cell in the body. An artery carries blood out from the heart. A vein carries
blood back to the heart. An average adult heart weighs about 10-13 ounces (300
to 350 grams). The rate which the heart pumps varies depending on what your
doing. When at rest the heart pumps more slowly. When you run the heart rate
increases to provide muscles and other tissues with additional oxygen they need.
The typical heart rate is 72 beats per minute. Each beat gives out 2-3 ounces
of blood pumped into the arterial system. At this heart rate it beats about
104,000 times a day. The Superior and Inferior are the biggest veins in the
body. The Superior is really the biggest. These veins have a lot of carbon
dioxide and have oxygen-poor blood. The aorta is the biggest artery in the
whole body. Which will be covered in the report. The pulmonary vein takes the
blood out of the heart and takes it to the lungs.

Today we will talk about many different parts of the heart: The Three
Layers of Muscle, Atriums, Ventricles, Systole and Diastole, Treatments for the
Heart, Valves, and many Diseases.

The Three Layers of Muscle

The heart has three layers of a muscular wall. A thin layer of tissue,
the pericardium covers the outside, and another layer, the endocardium, lines
the inside. The myocardium is the middle layer and is the biggest of all.
Myocardial Infarction is a disease later read about in this report. The
pericardium is a fibrous sac which is very smooth lining. In the space space
between the pericardium and epicardium is a small amount of fluid. This fluid
makes the movement of the heart muscles smooth. Myocardium is the heart muscle
itself.

Atriums

The right atrium is a low pressure pump that moves blood into the right
ventricle through the tricuspid valve. The atria are...