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1.1: Anatomy of a Heart

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    42727
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    Traditionally, the heart is described as having left heart and right heart chambers. Current imaging techniques can show in exquisite detail the heart in its anatomical position inside the living patient’s chest and demonstrate the convoluted arrangement of ‘right’ heart chambers relative to ‘left’ heart chambers and the fact that right heart chambers are not strictly right-sided nor are left heart chambers left-sided. These important relationships of the chambers can be replicated with an endocast (Figure 1.1.1). In cardiac anatomy, knowledge of the relative disposition of the cardiac chambers is as relevant as the intrinsic chamber morphology. This review considers the cardiac chambers, coronary arteries and the conduction system.

    450px-Figure1.jpg
    Figure 1.1.1: The endocast is viewed from 5 different perspectives to demonstrate the spatial relationship between right (coloured blue) and left (coloured red) heart chambers and between atria and ventricles. The blue and white arrows represent the right and left ventricular outflow tracts respectively.

    This page titled 1.1: Anatomy of a Heart is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by de Jong and van der Waals Eds. (Cardionetworks Foundation and the Health[e]Foundation) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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