It is well known that the heart has four cavities (the atria and the ventricles), four valves (two atrioventricular and two semilunar), a large arterial outlet (the aorta) and a particular muscular lining (the myocardium).
However, the heart has many other interesting anatomical features, which in some cases are also the subject of confusion or inaccuracy.
For example…
- From the right ventricle starts a blood vessel that carries oxygen-poor blood, called the pulmonary artery, while at the left atrium come blood vessels that carry oxygenated blood, called pulmonary veins . For many people, this may seem like an anomaly, as they associate arteries with vessels that carry oxygenated blood and veins to vessels that carry oxygen-poor blood.
In reality, however, all the vessels that depart from the heart are arteries and all the vessels that reach the heart are veins, regardless of the type of blood contained.
- At about 5 cm from the heart, the aorta has a curved part, known as an aortic arch, from which three very important arteries originate: the anonymous, the left subclavian and the common left carotid artery.
- The coronaries, that is the vessels that feed the myocardium, derive from two branches of the ascending aorta. The ascending aorta is the first section of the aorta, before the aortic arch above.
- In some people the right atrium and the left atrium communicate by means of an orifice, called patent foramen ovale . This congenital heart defect is, in most cases, without consequences.
