What is the pump of the circulatory system

Overview

Your heart is divided into two separate pumping systems, the right side and the left side.

  • The right side of your heart receives oxygen-poor blood from your veins and pumps it to your lungs, where it picks up oxygen and gets rid of carbon dioxide.
  • The left side of your heart receives oxygen-rich blood from your lungs and pumps it through your arteries to the rest of your body.

Your heart has four separate chambers that pump blood, two on the right side and two on the left.

How the heart's pumping system works

Your heart is divided into two separate pumping systems, the right side and the left side. Blood is pumped through your heart and lungs in four steps:

  1. The right atrium receives oxygen-poor blood from the body and pumps it to the right ventricle through the tricuspid valve.
  2. The right ventricle pumps the oxygen-poor blood to the lungs through the pulmonary valve.
  3. The left atrium receives oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and pumps it to the left ventricle through the mitral valve.
  4. The left ventricle pumps the oxygen-rich blood through the aortic valve out to the rest of the body.

Credits

Current as of: January 10, 2022

Author: Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
Rakesh K. Pai MD, FACC - Cardiology, Electrophysiology
Martin J. Gabica MD - Family Medicine
Adam Husney MD - Family Medicine
Stephen Fort MD, MRCP, FRCPC - Interventional Cardiology

The primary responsibility of the heart is to pump blood throughout the circulatory system. As the center of the circulatory system, the heart is an essential organ for maintaining the overall functioning of the body.

The cardiovascular system consists of many veins and blood vessels which ensure that all parts of the body are provided with an adequate amount of oxygen and nutrients to function efficiently.  Without a sufficient supply of oxygen, any bodily function would fail, causing organ damage or organ death.

How a Normal Heart Pumps Blood -- The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Components of the heart

Fully understanding the heart’s vital function in the body entails the need to first understand its anatomy. As a busy and hardworking organ, the heart needs to closely monitor all of its components to ensure proper functioning. Even a minor cardiac dysfunction may result in significant functional challenges in the total body function of an affected individual.

Located at the center of the chest and in the thoracic cavity, the heart can be divided into four parts that are otherwise known as chambers, each of which contains several valves. Two of these chambers, which are called atria, are located in the upper portion of the heart and receive oxygen-free blood. The valves that separate these chambers are called atrioventricular valves, which are composed of the tricuspidvalve on the left and the mitral valve on the right.

What is the pump of the circulatory system

Meanwhile, ventricles, which are the chambers found in the lower portion of the heart, pump oxygen-enriched blood into the body. Similar to the atria, the ventricular chambers are also separated by valves called semilunar valves. These valves may be further divided into the pulmonary and aortic valves.

The heart is also composed of a protective layer that has three parts, which include the outer layer known as the epicardium, the middle layer known as the myocardium, and the innermost layer known as the endocardium. Both the outer and inner layers of the heart are thin; whereas the middle layer, makes up most of the heart and is comrpised of cardiac muscle fibers.

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There are two types of blood vessels that facilitate the distribution of blood throughout the body. The vessels that bring oxygen-free blood back into the heart are called veins. Comparatively, the blood vessels that carry oxygen-rich blood away from the heart and to other body parts are called arteries. Originating in the left ventricle, the largest artery is called the aorta.

All these parts function together to ensure that all organs of the body are regularly supplied with a sufficient amount of oxygen and nutrients.

The pumping process

The heart’s blood pumping cycle, which is called the cardiac cycle, begins when oxygen-free blood returns to the heart through the right atrium, after distributing oxygen and nutrients to other parts of the body. The blood then moves into the right ventricle, which facilitates a transfer of blood into the lungs. Within the lungs, all waste gases, such s carbon dioxide, are released from the blood, while also reoxygenating the blood for its return to circulation.

The oxygen-rich blood returns to the heart through the left atrium and eventually into the left ventricle. This chamber then pumps blood to the other organs of the body through the aorta. After reaching each of the organs, deoxygenated blood leaves these organs through their respective veins until finally reaching the heart through the superior and inferior vena cavae, depending upon the organ. Several anatomical studies have estimated that a total of approximately 5.6 liters of blood circulate the body, with three cardiac cycles completed each minute.

What is the pump of the circulatory system

Image Credit: Lightspring / Shutterstock.com

Generating a heartbeat

A normal heartbeat is evidence of the heart’s typical functioning, and each heartbeat is a manifestation of the oxygen-reloading process within the heart. As blood flows throughout the body in a single direction, any misdirection of the blood is avoided through the regulated closing and opening functions of the various cardiac chambers and valves.

The first phase of a heartbeat, which is known as systole, is a short period that occurs when the ventricles contract and initiate the closing of the tricuspid and mitral valves. The second phase, which is called diastole, is a relatively long period of ventricular relaxation, where the aortic and pulmonary valves close.

The heart’s “lub-dub” sound is produced by the continuous closing and opening of the valves. This process occurs in a way that the entry and exit of either oxygen-rich or oxygen-free blood into and outside the heart remain synchronized.

A complete and successful heartbeat is made possible by electrical impulses coming from the sino-atrial (SA) node that catalyzes the function of each component within the heart. The rate of systole and diastole are commonly used to quantify the rate of an individual’s blood pressure at a certain point in time. A normal adult heart rate of an adult is typically around 72 beats per minute.

References

  • http://www.vascularconcepts.com/content/pages.php?pg=patients_cardio_system&page=cardiac_cycle
  • https://www.acls.net/anatomy-of-the-human-heart.htm
  • http://thevirtualheart.org/3dpdf/Heart_3d.pdf
  • https://courses.lumenlearning.com/nemcc-ap/chapter/heart-anatomy/

Further Reading

  • All Cardiology Content
  • Percutaneous Closure Procedure
  • Cardiothoracic Imaging Techniques
  • Cardiology - What is Cardiology?
  • Cardiac Pharmaceutical Agents

Last Updated: Mar 18, 2021

What is the pump of the circulatory system

Written by

Gaea Marelle Miranda

Gaea graduated from the University of the Philippines, Manila, with a degree in Behavioral Sciences, cum laude . Majoring in psychology, sociology, and anthropology, she approaches writing with a multidisciplinary perspective.

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What is the pump in system of the body?

The right side of your heart receives oxygen-poor blood from your veins and pumps it to your lungs, where it picks up oxygen and gets rid of carbon dioxide. The left side of your heart receives oxygen-rich blood from your lungs and pumps it through your arteries to the rest of your body.

What is the pump of the heart?

The right and left sides of the heart are further divided into two top chambers called the atria, which receive blood from the veins, and two bottom chambers called ventricles, which pump blood into the arteries. The atria and ventricles work together, contracting and relaxing to pump blood out of the heart.

What are the 3 blood pumps?

Blood pumps can be classified into three major types: displacement; rotary and TAH pumps.