Normal Heart Anatomy

The heart is a series of muscular pumps. The aorta is the main artery of the body – it carries blood away from the heart and delivers it to the other organs. Blood then passes through capillary beds in the organs where exchange of oxygen, carbon dioxide and nutrients like glucose, takes place. Blood returns from the organs to the right side of the heart through the veins.  The right atrium collects blood delivered from the veins and then blood passes through the tricuspid valve to the right ventricle. The right ventricle is the pump which pumps blood to the lungs where it is oxygenated and where carbon dioxide is lost to the environment. From the lungs, blood returns to the left atrium or filling chamber and then through the mitral valve to the left ventricle. The left ventricle pumps blood out through the aortic valve into the aorta. All the valves in the heart are one-way valves.