Anatomy study note · Thorax

Heart

A hollow, roughly pyramid-shaped muscular pump in the middle mediastinum, enclosed in the pericardium. Its right side pumps blood to the lungs (low resistance) and its left side to the body (high resistance).

Key points

• Apex = left ventricle, 5th left intercostal space, 9 cm from the midline.
• Base = left atrium (posterior); rests on the diaphragmatic surface.
• Right border = RA; left border = LV + left auricle; inferior border = RV.
• SA node → AV node → bundle of His → bundle branches → Purkinje.
• Cardiac pain: T1–T4 → chest + medial arm (intercostobrachial).
• Tetralogy: PS, VSD, overriding aorta, RVH.
• SA node first lies in the sinus venosus.
• Septa form in weeks 4–7.
• Endocardium / myocardium / epicardium.
• Cardiac muscle: central nucleus, intercalated disks.

The full note in the atlas also covers

Location · Features · Nerve supply · Histology · Development · Clinical notes

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 5, PDF pp. 599–611, 615–621, 628–642
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 15, PDF pp. 225–227, 236, 241, 276
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 11, PDF pp. 195–196; ch. 8, PDF pp. 145–146

More from the thorax

• Intercostal arteries
• Intercostal muscles
• Intercostal nerves
• Internal thoracic artery
• Internal thoracic vein
• Interventricular septum
• Joints of the ribs
• Left atrium
• Left coronary artery
• Left ventricle
• Levatores costarum
• Lung

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