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Chapters-16 The Heart

BOOK TITLE: Pathology Quick Review and MCQs

Author
1. Mohan Harsh
ISBN
9788184487787
DOI
10.5005/jp/books/11098_16
Edition
3/e
Publishing Year
2010
Pages
39
Author Affiliations
1. Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh, India
Chapter keywords

Abstract

The heart is a muscular pump that ejects blood into the vascular tree with sufficient pressure to maintain optimal circulation. Heart is divided into four chambers: a right and a left atrium both lying superiorly, and a right and a left ventricle both lying inferiorly and are larger. Wall of the heart consists mainly of the myocardium which is covered externally by thin membrane, the epicardium or visceral pericardium, and lined internally by another thin layer, the endocardium. Heart failure is defined as the pathophysiologic state in which impaired cardiac function is unable to maintain an adequate circulation for the metabolic needs of the tissues of the body. The most common and most important cause of heart failure is weakening of the ventricular muscle due to disease so that the heart fails to act as an efficient pump. Hypertrophy of the heart is defined as an increase in size and weight of the myocardium. It generally results from increased pressure load. Sometimes hypertrophy of the heart is accompanied by cardiac dilatation. Stress leading to accumulation of excessive volume of blood in a chamber of the heart causes increase in length of myocardial fibres and hence cardiac dilatation as a compensatory mechanism.

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