Understanding Your Heart

"Now that you have undergone an angioplasty, you and your family will have lots of questions. This book tries to briefly discuss how to prevent its recurrence. This informative booklet will help you understand the factors responsible for Heart Disease. More importantly it also will help you understand how to reduce the chances of Recurrence of the block or disease at the site where stent was implanted and how to reduce the chances of new Lesion or Block in the coronary (Heart) arteries ". There's no doubt about it...

If you have had Coronary Artery Disease, you've had a very frightening experience. Your life was threatened, and that is scary for anyone. Now, even though your doctor says you're going to be all right, you are probably still anxious.

After what you have just been through, feeling apprehensive is normal. But remember, your heart is healing every day. With each passing day, you will get stronger and more mobile. The worst is behind you.

Understanding the Structure of the Heart - A hollow muscular organ

The Heart

• A powerful muscular pump
• Continuous cardiac activity is synonymous with life
• Integral part of circulation system
• Healthy heart pumps more than 9000 units of blood in a day
• Although heart is full of blood but it cannot absorb energy from this blood
• A network of blood vessels known as coronary arteries surround the heart muscle and supply it with blood that is rich in oxygen. The heart muscle needs this oxygen to function

There are four heart valves:

• The right atrium and the right ventricle (Tricuspid Valve)
• Left atrium and the left ventricle (Mitral Valve)
• Right ventricle and the pulmonary arteries (Pulmonary Valve)
• Left ventricle and the aorta (Aortic Valve)

The heart is divided into several functional parts:

• The Right Atrium and the right ventricle collect non-oxygenated (impure blood) blood from whole body and supply to lungs for oxygenation.
• The left atrium and the left ventricle supply the oxygenated blood to the whole body.
• The right and the left heart are separated by a muscular partition (the septum)