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The Heart and Cardiovascular System
The cardiovascular system is made up of the heart and the blood vessels, such as the veins and arteries, which move the blood around the body. Your heart is a muscle that is about the size of your fist. It works like a pump and it is always pumping blood throughout the body. The average heart beats 100,000 times a day. Blood carries oxygen from the lungs and nutrients from the digestive system to the cells in the body. The blood then carries waste products back to be removed by the kidneys and carbon dioxide to be removed by the lungs. (Read about "Vascular System")
Arteries carry oxygen-rich blood away from the heart. The main artery from the heart is the aorta. Veins carry oxygen-poor blood back to your heart. At the lungs, it is the pulmonary artery that brings oxygen-poor blood into the lungs and the pulmonary vein that carries oxygen-rich blood back to the heart.
The heart is divided into four parts or chambers. The top ones are called the left atrium and right atrium and the bottom two are the left ventricle and right ventricle. Blood first enters the heart at the right atrium, passes through the tricuspid valve into the right ventricle. The blood is then sent out through the pulmonary valve to the lungs. 
It picks up oxygen and comes back to the heart at the left atrium. From there it passes through the mitral valve into the left ventricle where it is pushed through the aortic valve and out to the body. The mitral valve differs from the rest of the valves because it is made up of just two flaps; the others have three flaps. Those flaps can also be called leaflets or cusps.
The chambers each have a purpose. The atria act as reservoirs for the blood before it moves on to the larger ventricles. The ventricles are the strong pumps of the heart with the left one, the one that pushes blood out to most of the body, being the strongest. These chambers can be damaged by disease, resulting in scarring, weakening of the muscle, thickening of the muscle or hardening of the heart wall. (Read about "Cardiomyopathy")
The job of the valves is to keep the blood moving all in one direction, but problems can occur there as well. (Read about "The Heart & Its Valves")
You can follow the links below to learn more about the heart and the cardiovascular system along with diseases and conditions that can affect them.
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Aneurysm: see Aneurysms Angina: see Angina Angioplasty: see Angioplasty Arrhythmia: see Arrhythmia Arteries: see Vascular System Arteriosclerosis: see Arteriosclerosis & Atherosclerosis Aspirin: see Aspirin & Heart Atherosclerosis: see Arteriosclerosis & Atherosclerosis Bypass surgery: see Coronary Bypass Surgery Blood pressure, high: see Hypertension: High Blood Pressure Blood pressure, kidney disease: see BP & Kidney Disease Blood pressure, women: see Women & Blood Pressure Bypass: see Coronary Bypass Surgery Cardiac arrest: see Cardiac Arrest Cardiac rehabilitation: see Cardiac Rehabilitation Cardiomyopathy: see Cardiomyopathy Cardiovascular tests: see Cardiovascular Tests Cholesterol: see Cholesterol Congenital heart defects: see Congenital Heart Defects Congestive heart failure: see Congestive Heart Failure Coronary bypass surgery: see Coronary Bypass Surgery Coronary heart disease: see Coronary Heart Disease Coronary microvascular disease: see Coronary Microvascular Disease CT angiography: see CT Scans - Computerized Tomography Deep vein thrombosis: see Deep Vein Thrombosis Diet: see Low Fat Food Tips EKG: see EKG - Electrocardiogram Endocarditis: see The Heart & Its Valves Enlarged heart: see Enlarged Heart Exercise: see Exercise and Your Heart Fainting: see Syncope Foramen ovale, patent: see Patent Foramen Ovale Glossary of heart terms: see Glossary of Heart Terms Glossary of stroke terms: see Glossary of Stroke Terms Heart structure: see The Heart & Its Valves Heart attack: see Heart Attack Heart disease & women: see Heart Disease & Women Heart murmurs: see The Heart & Its Valves Heart risks: see Heart Risks Heart tests: see Cardiovascular Tests Homocysteine: see Homocysteine Hypertension: see Hypertension: High Blood Pressure Lupus: see Lupus Marfan syndrome: see Marfan Syndrome Mitral valve prolapse: see The Heart & Its Valves Myocardial infarction: see Heart Attack Patent ductus arteriosus: see Congenital Heart Defects Patent foramen ovale: see Patent Foramen Ovale Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) : see PAD Rehabilitation: see Cardiac Rehabilitation Risks, heart: see Heart Risks Salt, sodium: see Sodium Scleroderma: see Scleroderma Smoking, how to quit: see Quit Smoking Stenosis: see The Heart & Its Valves Stents: see Angioplasty Stress test: see Stress Test Stroke: see Stroke Sudden cardiac arrest: see Cardiac Arrest Syncope: see Syncope Target heart rate: see Target Heart Rate Tests: see Cardiovascular Tests Tetralogy of Fallot: see Congenital Heart Defects Thrombophilia: see Thrombophilia Valve regurgitation: see The Heart & Its Valves Valve stenosis: see The Heart & Its Valves Vascular system: see Vascular System Veins: see Vascular System Women & blood pressure: see Women & Blood Pressure Women & heart disease: see Heart Disease & Women |
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