Osmosis Heart Anatomy: Chambers, Valves and Conduction System

Join Osmosis as they tour the heart, explaining its four chambers, borders, and orientation, the flow of blood through the right and left sides, and the key valves and conducting system that coordinate contraction. The video also highlights embryology remnants and how to identify heart structures in imaging.

• Four-chamber heart with intra-atrial and interventricular septa
• Blood flow from right heart to lungs and from left heart to the body
• Tricuspid and mitral valves with chordae tendineae and papillary muscles
• Conduction system: SA node, AV node, Purkinje fibers

Overview and Cardiac Orientation

In this Osmosis video from Elsevier the heart is introduced as a muscular organ located in the mediastinum between the lungs and protected by the pericardium. It is described in three dimensions as an upside-down, tipped pyramid with a base largely posterior and an apex directed anteriorly and slightly to the left. The borders and overall orientation are discussed to help viewers visualize the heart within the chest and relate the borders to the four chambers and great vessels.

"the heart is rotated to the left on its longitudinal axis within the mediastinum, so the apex is directed more posterolaterally" - Osmosis