Why does the heart have chambers

Learn how we develop our content. To learn more about Healthwise, visit Healthwise. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated. It looks like your browser does not have JavaScript enabled. Please turn on JavaScript and try again. The left atrium receives oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and pumps it to the left ventricle through the mitral valve.

The left ventricle pumps the oxygen-rich blood through the aortic valve out to the rest of the body. How does my heart maintain its normal function? To do this, your heart needs to: Regulate the timing of your heartbeat. Your heart's electrical system controls the timing of the pump. The electrical system keeps your heart beating in a regular rhythm and adjusts the rate at which it beats. When the electrical system is working properly, it maintains a normal heart rate and rhythm.

Problems with this electrical system can cause an arrhythmia, which means that your heart chambers are beating in an uncoordinated or random way or that your heart is beating too fast tachycardia or too slow bradycardia. Keep your heart muscle healthy. The four chambers of your heart are made of a special type of muscle called myocardium. The myocardium does the main pumping work: It relaxes to fill with blood and then squeezes contracts to pump the blood. After pumping, your heart relaxes and fills with blood.

The muscle must be able to relax enough so that it can fill with blood properly before it pumps again. The health of your heart muscle affects both its contractility and its ability to relax, both of which determine whether your heart is able to pump enough blood each time it beats. Problems with the contractility of your heart can be caused by problems with the muscle itself such as a viral infection of the heart muscle or an inherited heart muscle disorder or by problems with the blood supply to the heart muscle such as reduced blood flow to the heart muscle, called ischemia.

Your heart muscle needs its own supply of blood because, like the rest of your body, it needs oxygen and other nutrients to stay healthy. Actions for this page Listen Print. Summary Read the full fact sheet. On this page. The four chambers of the heart The heartbeat Blood vessels of the heart Heart disorders Symptoms of heart disease Where to get help.

The four chambers of the heart Your heart has a right and left side separated by a wall called the septum. The heartbeat Each atrium is connected to its ventricle by a one-way valve. Blood vessels of the heart The blood vessels of the heart include: venae cavae — deoxygenated blood is delivered to the right atrium by these two veins. One superior vena cava carries blood from the head and upper torso, while the other inferior vena cava carries blood from the lower body pulmonary arteries — deoxygenated blood is pumped by the right ventricle into the pulmonary arteries that link to the lungs pulmonary veins — the pulmonary veins return oxygenated blood from the lungs to the left atrium of the heart aorta — this is the largest artery of the body, and it runs the length of the trunk.

Oxygenated blood is pumped into the aorta from the left ventricle. The aorta subdivides into various branches that deliver blood to the upper body, trunk and lower body coronary arteries — like any other organ or tissue, the heart needs oxygen. The coronary arteries that supply the heart are connected directly to the aorta, which carries a rich supply of oxygenated blood coronary veins — deoxygenated blood from heart muscle is 'dumped' by coronary veins directly into the right atrium.

Heart disorders Some disorders of the heart include: coronary heart disease — fatty deposits or plaques build up inside one or more of the coronary arteries atherosclerosis. This narrows the artery. Untreated, coronary heart disease can lead to angina or a heart attack angina — if the coronary arteries are narrowed, part of the heart muscle may not receive enough blood and oxygen. This causes the sensations of chest tightness and pain that are typical of angina heart attack — if a coronary artery is blocked, the heart is starved of oxygen and nutrients.

Heart muscle cells myocardial cells are damaged, and may die without prompt treatment heart murmur — an audible vibration or humming heard through the stethoscope, caused by somewhat noisy blood flow within the heart. Pumps need a set of valves to keep the fluid flowing in one direction and the heart is no exception. The heart has two types of valves that keep the blood flowing in the correct direction. The valves between the atria and ventricles are called atrioventricular valves also called cuspid valves , while those at the bases of the large vessels leaving the ventricles are called semilunar valves.

The right atrioventricular valve is the tricuspid valve. The left atrioventricular valve is the bicuspid, or mitral, valve. The valve between the right ventricle and pulmonary trunk is the pulmonary semilunar valve.

The valve between the left ventricle and the aorta is the aortic semilunar valve.