Chamber which receives blood from the lungs

These pump blood out of the heart. A wall called the interventricular septum is between the two ventricles. The two top chambers are the right atrium and the left atrium. They receive the blood entering the heart. A wall called the interatrial septum is between the atria. The atria are separated from the ventricles by the atrioventricular valves: The tricuspid valve separates the right atrium from the right ventricle. The mitral valve separates the left atrium from the left ventricle.

Two valves also separate the ventricles from the large blood vessels that carry blood leaving the heart: The pulmonic valve is between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery, which carries blood to the lungs. The aortic valve is between the left ventricle and the aorta, which carries blood to the body.

What Are the Parts of the Circulatory System? Two pathways come from the heart: The pulmonary circulation is a short loop from the heart to the lungs and back again. The systemic circulation carries blood from the heart to all the other parts of the body and back again. In pulmonary circulation: The pulmonary artery is a big artery that comes from the heart.

It splits into two main branches, and brings blood from the heart to the lungs. At the lungs, the blood picks up oxygen and drops off carbon dioxide.

The blood then returns to the heart through the pulmonary veins. In systemic circulation: Next, blood that returns to the heart has picked up lots of oxygen from the lungs. So it can now go out to the body. The epicardium covers the heart, wraps around the roots of the great blood vessels, and adheres the heart wall to a protective sac. The middle layer is the myocardium. The innermost layer, the endocardium , lines the interior structures of the heart.

The left atrium and right atrium are the two upper chambers of the heart. The left atrium receives oxygenated blood from the lungs. The right atrium receives deoxygenated blood returning from other parts of the body. Valves connect the atria to the ventricles, the lower chambers. Each atrium empties into the corresponding ventricle below. The ventricles are the two lower chambers of the heart.

Blood empties into each ventricle from the atrium above, and then shoots out to where it needs to go. The right ventricle receives deoxygenated blood from the right atrium, then pumps the blood along to the lungs to get oxygen. The heart is the hardest working muscle in the human body. Located almost in the center of the chest, a healthy adult heart is the size of a clenched adult fist. By age 70, the human heart will beat more than 2.

The heart is always working. It pumps about 2, gallons of blood daily. A child's heart works just as hard as an adult's heart. In fact, at rest, a baby's heart may beat up to to times a minute. An adult's heart often beats between 60 and times a minute, at rest.

The rate at which the heart pumps gradually slows down from birth to teen years. The cardiovascular system is made up of the heart and blood vessels. Please turn on JavaScript and try again. Main Content. Important Phone Numbers. Top of the page. The right atrium receives oxygen-poor blood from the body and pumps it to the right ventricle.