Chapter 14

Heart: Cardiovascular Physiology

Exam 3 will be on Monday November 21

Will cover chapters 11, 12, 13, 14
May cover more, depends on how far we get

Heart: Cardiovascular Physiology

Cardiovascular system is a series of tubes (blood
vessels) filled with fluid (blood) and connected to a
pump (the heart)
Pressure generated by the heart continuously moves
blood through the system
Blood picks up oxygen at the lungs and expels carbon
dioxide
Blood circulates to all the body cells, bringing oxygen
and removing waste products

Table 14-1

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Arteries
Carry blood away from the heart
Usually carry oxygenated blood
Exception: pulmonary arteries carry deoxygenated blood to the lungs
Shown in red on the diagrams
Veins
Carry deoxygenated blood to the heart
Exception: pulmonary veins carry re-oxygenated
blood back to the heart
Shown in blue on the diagrams

Systemic Circulation
Heart (left ventricle) to body tissues then back to
the heart
Pulmonary Circulation
Right ventricle to lungs then back to heart (left
atrium)
Hepatic Portal Circulation
Digestive tract to liver via the hepatic portal vein.
This carries the digested nutrients directly to the
liver for processing

Portal Systems
Definition:
Two capillary beds directly connected by a set of
blood vessels
Other body portal systems:
Kidney portal system
Hypothalamic-hypophyseal portal system

Figure 14-1

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Figure 14-7c

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Figure 14-7a

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Figure 14-7g

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Figure 14-7b

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Figure 14-7d

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Heart Structure
Learn the following diagrams (if you don't already
know them)
Know, for the exam, pericardium, heart structures
(including valves, atria, ventricles, septum), arteries
and veins attached to the heart (including the coronary
arteriesnot shown on the diagrams), and the
circulation of blood through the heart
See Table 14-2 on page 478 for heart structures and
major blood vessels

Figure 14-7e

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Figure 14-7f

Atria, ventricles,
veins, arteries

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Table 14-2

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Figure 14-7g

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Coronary Arteries and Veins

Located in shallow grooves on the surface of the heart
Supply blood to the heart muscle
If any of these get blocked, can cause a myocardial
infarction (heart attack)
If the blood flow is blocked, then the heart cells that
the artery supplies start to die

Coronary Arteries and Veins

Heart: Fibrous Skeleton

(fig. 14-9a, p. 480)
Four fibrous connective tissue rings surround the four
heart valves
Functions:
1. Separates atria from ventricles
2. Provides attachment for valve cusps and
myocardium (all heart muscle originate and insert on
it). This arrangement pulls the heart base and apex
together when the ventricles contract

Heart: Fibrous Skeleton

(fig. 14-9a, p. 480)
3. Helps keep AV and semilunar valves open, but
inhibits over distension of these valves
4. Forms an electrical insulator separating the
electrical impulses of the atria and ventricles, so that
they contract independently

Heart Valves
One-way flow through the heart, ensured by 2 sets of
heart valves
Atrioventricular (AV) valves
Located between the atria and ventricles
Tricuspid valve (has 3 flaps)
Between R. atrium and R. ventricle
Bicuspid valve (has 2 flaps)
Between L. atrium and L. ventricle
Also called mitral valve (looks like a bishop's
hat)

Figure 14-9a

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Figure 14-9c

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Chordae Tendinae
Collagenous tendons
Attached to the flaps of the AV valve on the
ventricular side
At opposite end, they are attached to papillary
muscles
Papillary Muscles
Mound-like extensions of ventricular muscle
Provide stability for the chordae tendinae
These muscles do not actively pull on the valve
flaps
The AV valves move passively, respond to flowing
blood pressing on them

Chordae Tendinae and Papillary Muscles

When a ventricle contracts, blood pushes against the

bottom side of its AV valve and forces it upward into a
closed position
Chordae tendinae prevent the valve from being
pushed into the atrium during contraction
Prolapse:
If the chordae tendinae fail and the valve is
pushed into the atrium

Figure 14-9d

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Figure 14-9b

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Heart Valves
Semilunar valves
Separate the ventricles from the major arteries
Look like half-moon shapes
Each made of 3 cuplike leaflets that snap shut to
prevent backflow of blood (back into the ventricles)
Don't need connective tendons like the AV valves
Aortic semilunar valve
Located between L. ventricle and aorta
Pulmonary semilunar valve
Located between R. ventricle and pulmonary
trunk

Figure 14-9c

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Figure 14-9a

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Blood Flow Through the Heart

Right Atrium
Deoxygenated blood enterrs R. Atrium from the
superior and inferior vena cavae
R. Atrium contracts, sends blood through the
tricuspid valve and into the R. Ventricle
Right Ventricle
R. Ventricle contracts, sends blood through the
Pulmonary semilunar valve into the pulmonary
artery
Pulmonary Artery takes blood to lungs

Figure 14-7g

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Blood Flow Through the Heart

Left Atrium
Pulmonary veins bring freshly oxygenated blood
from the lungs back to the L. Atrium
L. Atrium contracts, sends blood through the mitral
valve into the L. Ventricle
Left Ventricle
Largest and most powerful of the four heart
chambers
L. Ventricle contracts, sends blood through the
aortic semilunar valve and into the aorta
Aorta distributes blood to the entire body

Figure 14-7g

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Figure 14-9d

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Figure 14-9b

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Figure 14-7h

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Cardiac Muscle (Myocardium)

Most of the heart is composed of cardiac muscle
Most cardiac muscle is contractile
Approximately 1% of cardiac muscle cells are
specialized to spontaneously generate action
potentials
Heart muscle is myogenic: the contraction signal
originates within the heart itself, doesn't need external
input to keep beating

Cardiac Muscle (Myocardium)

Pacemaker or autorhythmic cells
Specialized myocarial cells
These set the rate of the heartbeat
Pacemaker cells are anatomicall distinct from other
myocardium
Smaller than the other cells
Contain few contractile fibers
Lack organized sarcomeres
Don't contribute much to heart contraction

Figure 14-10

Cardiac muscle

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Figure 14-10a

Spiral arrangement of
ventricular cardiac muscle
Allows ventricular contraction
to squeeze blood upward
from the heart apex

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Myocardium or Cardiac Muscle

Differs in significant ways from skeletal muscle
Shares some similarities with smooth muscle
1. Cardiac muscle fibers much smaller than skeletal
muscle fibers and have a single nucleus per fiber
3. Individual cardiac muscle cells branch and join
(end-to-end) with neighboring cells. Intercalated disks
form the cell junctions

Figure 14-10b

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Intercalated disks are interdigitated membranes

consisting of desmosomes and gap junctions
Desmosomes
Strong connections, tie adjacent cells together
Allow force created in one cell to be transferred to
the adjacent cell
Gap Junctions
Electrically connect cardiac muscle cells
Allow waves of depolarization to spread rapidly
from cell to cell
Makes possible nearly simultaneous contraction of
entire heart

4. T-tubules of myocardial cells are larger than those

of skeletal muscle and they branch inside the
myocardial cells
5. Myocardial sarcoplasmic reticulum is smaller than
that of skeletal muscle
This is because cardiac muscle depends more on on
extracellular Ca++ to initiate contraction
In this, it resembles smooth muscle more than skeletal
muscle

6. Mitochondria occupy about one third of cell volume

in a cardiac muscle fiber
Cardiac muscle fibers have a very high energy
demand
Cardiac muscle consumes 70-80% of the oxygen
delivered to it by the blood. This is twice the amount of
oxygen extracted from blood by other body cells
The only way to get more oxygen to an exercising
heart is to increase blood flow
This is why blocked arteries can be so dangerous!

Cardiac Muscle Contraction

Fig. 14-11, p. 482
In cardiac muscle, an action potential intitiates EC
coupling (like in the previous chapter), but here, the
AP originates spontaneously in the heart's pacemaker
cells
It then spreads throughout the heart via the gap
junctions connecting the cardiac muscle cells
Neurotransmitters can modulate the pacemaker rate

Cardiac Muscle Contraction

Fig. 14-11, p. 482