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Anatomy of the heart

The heart weighs between 7 and 15 ounces (200 to 425 grams) and is a little larger than the size of your fist. By the end of a long life, a person’s heart may have beat (expanded and contracted) more than 3.5 billion times. In fact, each day, the average heart beats 100,000 times, pumping about 2,000 gallons (7,571 liters) of blood.

heart-illustration

 

Your heart is located between your lungs in the middle of your chest, behind and slightly to the left of your breastbone (sternum). A double-layered membrane called the pericardium surrounds your heart like a sac. The outer layer of the pericardium surrounds the roots of your heart’s major blood vessels and is attached by ligaments to your spinal column, diaphragm, and other parts of your body. The inner layer of the pericardium is attached to the heart muscle. A coating of fluid separates the two layers of membrane, letting the heart move as it beats, yet still be attached to your body.

Your heart has 4 chambers. The upper chambers are called the left and right atria, and the lower chambers are called the left and right ventricles. A wall of muscle called the septum separates the left and right atria and the left and right ventricles. The left ventricle is the largest and strongest chamber in your heart. The left ventricle’s chamber walls are only about a half-inch thick, but they have enough force to push blood through the aortic valve and into your body.

Read the rest of the article at the Texas Heart Institute site.

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Interview with Dr. Patel

Dr. Sanjaykumar Patel, MD, FACC practices diagnostic and interventional procedures at the Sadler Clinic in the Houston, Texas area. He was one of the first interventional cardiologists in the Houston area to use the transradial approach and has performed more than 1,000 transradial catheterizations.

Dr. Patel earned his Bachelor of Medicine & Bachelor of Surgery from Smt. NHL Municipal Medical College, Gujarat University in India. He completed his Internal Medicine at New York Medical College, NY, where he served as Chief Resident in 2003-2004 and then completed a fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine and Interventional Cardiology at St. Vincent’s Hospital and Medical Center in New York. He is board certified in Interventional Cardiology, Cardiovascular Diseases, Nuclear Cardiology, Echocardiography and Internal Medicine.

Dr. Patel now runs monthly transradial training courses in an effort to promote the use of the wrist approach. A complete listing of educational offerings for the transradial approach, including Dr. Patel’s upcoming courses, can be found on the Transradial Training Courses page in Angioplasty.Org’s Radial Access Center. 

Read the entire article at Angioplasty.org 

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