Anatomy study note · Thorax

Left ventricle

The main pumping chamber, which drives blood through the aortic valve into the aorta. It forms the apex, most of the left border and much of the diaphragmatic surface.

Key points

• Wall 3× the right ventricle; pressure 6× higher.
• Two papillary muscles; no moderator band.
• Forms the apex (apex beat).
• Outflow: aortic vestibule → aortic valve.
• Ventricles: primitive ventricle + conus, partitioned.
• Purkinje fibres: large pale conducting cells.
• Endocardium / myocardium / epicardium.

The full note in the atlas also covers

Features · Blood supply · Histology · Development · Clinical notes

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 5, PDF pp. 614–615, 622–628
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 15, PDF pp. 233–236
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 11, PDF pp. 195–196; ch. 8, PDF pp. 145–146, 146

More from the thorax

• Levatores costarum
• Lung
• Lymph nodes of the thoracic wall
• Main and lobar bronchi
• Mediastinal and tracheobronchial lymph nodes
• Mitral valve
• Pulmonary trunk
• Pulmonary valve
• Pulmonary veins
• Ribs
• Right atrium
• Right coronary artery

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