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The International Heart Institute of Montana The International Heart Institute of Montana

Heart Facts


• Size: slightly larger than a fist

• Location: the middle of the chest between the lungs

• Lifetime beats (expands and contracts): 3.5 billion times in a long life

• Daily beats: 100,000 times each day (on average)

• Volume pumped: 2,000 gallons of blood each day (on average)

• Chambers: 4 (left atria, right atria, left ventricle, right ventricle)

• Septum: 1 wall of muscle separating the left and right sides of the heart

• Function: supplies organs and tissues with oxygen and nutrient-rich blood


The Cardiovascular System Includes

• Heart muscle (myocardium) that is involuntary in nature

• Heart valves (one-way “doors” that control the direction that blood flows)

• An electrical conduction system (regulates the heart beat)

• Blood (8-12 pints or 1 to 1.5 gallons in humans)

• Coronary arteries (vessels that carry blood to the muscle of the heart itself)

• Arteries (vessels that carry blood out to the body)

• Veins (vessels that return blood from the body back to the heart)

• Pericardium (a protective, sac-like, double-layered membrane around the heart)

Resources

The American Heart Association www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=770

Hoag Hospital www.hoaghospital.org/heartinstitute/ValveCenter-About.aspx

Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation www.mplsheartfoundation.org/education/education_yourheart_what.asp

Updated December 2009