The heart structure

Made of unique set of muscles called Cardiac muscle. They can carry
on contracting and relaxing without getting fatigue!

 Inferior vena cava collects blood from lower part of body

Superior vena cava collects blood from upper parts head, chest
arms, neck
Right atrium receives blood from the vena cava, less muscular as it only
needs to send blood to ventricles
Tricuspid valves- made up of three flaps hence known as atrioventricular
valve separates ventricles and atria, allows blood to ventricles only due to
tough tendinous cords (tendons or heartstrings)
Right Ventricle has sufficient muscle to send blood to pulmonary artery
through the semi lunar valve which prevent back flow enroute to lungs
Pulmonary artery brings blood back to left side of heart to left atrium, the
left ventricle through the bicuspid valve.
Left ventricle- exrts the most pressure as it contracts. Sends blood throu
the semi lunar vale to aorta

 Coronary Artery and veins supply the heart muscle with blood to
oxygenate and nourish the tissues of the heart

How the heart works

The cardiac cycle :

Systole the contraction of the heart can be divided into
Atrial systole - when atria contract together forcing blood into
ventricle
Ventricular systole when ventricles contract . It happens 0.13s after
atrial systole
Diastole or relaxation the atrial fills with blood then one systole and
one diastole makes a hearbeat. About 0.8s in humans this is known as
a cardiac cycle
The electrical activity of the heart is know as ECG Electrocardiogram

What affects the heart?

Needs of the heart can make it beat faster physical exersice raises the
oxygen needs of the body which inturn raises the heart beat to supply the
muscles with oxygen for respiration
Permissible drugs caffeine or nicotine
Illegal drugs
The daphnia experiment
Intrinsic rhythm where the cardiac cells in an developing embryo start are
already contracting and relaxing before the even form the actual heart organ
The heart muscles, though can have triggers from outside, have their own
rhythm, and this reduced the bodys energy resourses in maintaining the
heartbeat
- The cardiovascular center in the brain responds to the variables of CO2 in
the blood, the receptors in the blood relay this information to the
cardiovascular centre which in turn sends signals into the heart, and this
enables the heart to respond to changes such as fear, sleep relaxation,
- Hormones also affect the heart rate eg adrenaline

 Pressure in the arteries Its highest near the heart, but as the
arteries divide up then the peripheral resistance of blood and the
surface increase thus reducing the pressure and hence the flow of
blood. The more surface area of the capillaries means the pressure
does not go up even though narrow

Changing local blood pressure

Constriction and dilation is done through hormones and can locally
change blood pressure. Eg during exercise constriction can take place
in some arteries, causing them to have less blood flow and making
more blood flow to organs such as muscles that need the blood.
However health conditions such as artheroscrelosis can cause
permanent raise in blood pressure leading to health problems

 Spygmomanometer is used to measure blood pressure

Syatolic and diastolic blood pressure is measured in mm Hg. And is
120 /80 for a normal person
140/90 reading would be said to be hypertension
90/60 is considered as hypotension

CVDs Cardiovascular diseases

Most CVDs are related to artheroscrelosis (hardening of arteries) and

buildup of yellow deposit of fat in the lumen. A plaque deposit as a
result of damage of the endothelium starts and lipid deposit forms
which builds up

 High blood pressure and chemicals in smoke can cause endothelia lining
damage.
Leucocytes respond to the site due to inflammatory effect of damage. They
cause accumulation of chemicals and mostly fatty deposit which is known
as atheroma. Fibrous tissue and calcium also make it harden and thus less
elastic than it should be. This is artheroscrelosis.
This raises the blood pressure of the artery and it causes further damage
elsewhere
Problems caused by artheroscrelosis and blood pressure
Aneurysm - severely weaken wall of artery due to plaque which may slit
open causing internal bleeding
Raised blood pressure can cause damage to tiny blood vessels eg in the
kidney where blood filters, protein may filter through the kidney
tubules..kidney damage shows protein in urine
Bleeding in the brain causes a stroke
Damaged blood vessels in the retina causes blindness

Heart Disease

Two main ones Angina and Myocardial Infraction ( Heart Attack)

Angina plaque build up slowly in the coronary artery,
First signs noticed esp during exercise where due to more demand for oxygen
the narrowed arteries supply less blood to cardiac muscles which instead
respires anaerobically. Causing gripping pain in chest left arm and jaw.
Helped by eating low fat diet more exercise and not smoking
Taking drugs to dilate the blood vessels

Heart Attack when a blood clot occurs in a coronary blood vessel,

starving that patch of tissue. Artheroscrerosis takes place hardening the
blood vessel causing it to crack. Platelets are released making a clot
which is called thrombosis
Symptoms severe chest pain last for several hours

 Stroke an interaption of normal blood flowin the brain. Sometimes

due to a clot that happens in the brain
Symptoms dizziness confusion slurred speech, blurred vision and
paralysis when severe
If treated quickly a patient can survive the stroke and live longer,.