Ins and Outs of the Cardiac Chambers

Abstract

The flow of blood through the normal, healthy heart is always unidirectional, in both the right and left sides of the heart. This is endured by the sequential, opening and closing of the atrioventricular valves and the aortic/pulmonary valves. Blood flows when there is a pressure gradient. The phasic changes in atrial and ventricular pressure during a cardiac cycle determine, in concert with gating valves, the unidirectional intracardiac flow. The student should understand what generates the pressure that ejects blood volume from each ventricle and what pressure gradient drives the inflow or ventricular infilling of blood during diastolic relaxation phase of the cardiac cycle.