Download Cardiac Disorders

Understanding the Heart
Part I
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Introduction:
o Many athletes may have cardiovascular disorders; it is however the
athletic trainers job to be able to distinguish between benign and
potentially catastrophic conditions.
Anatomy of the heart:
o The heart is made up of four separate chambers
 Two atria
 Two ventricles
o Blood from the right side of the heart flows to the lungs
o While blood from the left side of the heart flows to the rest of the
body.
o The heart is divided in half by the septum
o ***Blood is pumped into the right atrium of the heart from the
veins via the inferior and superior vena cava.
 From the right atrium the oxygen deprived blood pumps
through the tricuspid valve to the right ventricle.
 From the more powerful muscles surrounding the ventricles
the blood is pumped to the lungs via the pulmonary artery
 *the pulmonary artery is the only artery in the body
to carry O2 deprived blood.
 The blood passes through the tissues of the lungs and picks
up O2 and returns to the heart via the pulmonary vein.
 *the only vein to carry O2 enriched blood
 The O2 enriched blood arrives in the left atrium and is
pumped through the Mitral valve into the left ventricle
 The powerful muscle of the left ventricle pumps the blood
out through the aortic valve into the aorta and into the rest
of the body.
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How is this clinically important?
o A pulse can tell you much more than if a person is alive or dead.
 Factors to take note of when checking a pulse:
 Intensity
o Strong
o Weak
 Contour
o How much blood is moving through a
certain artery
 Regularity
o Are the pulses arriving at regular intervals?
 And of course pulse Rate
o How many beats per minute (bpm)