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The human heart is a muscular organ that provides a continuous blood circulation through the cardiac cycle and is one of the most vital organs in the human body. The heart is divided into four main chambers: the two upper chambers are called the left and right atria and two lower chambers are called the right and left ventricles.There is a thick wall of muscle separating the right side and the left side of the heart called the septum. Normally with each beat the right ventricle pumps the same amount of blood into the lungs that the left ventricle pumps out into the body. Physicians commonly refer to the right atrium and right ventricle together as the right heart and to the left atrium and ventricle as the left heart. The electric energy that stimulates the heart occurs in the sinoatrial node, which produces a definite potential and then discharges, sending an impulse across the atria. In the atria the electrical signal moves from cell to cell while in the ventricles the signal is carried by specialized tissue called the Purkinje fibers which then transmit the electric charge to the myocardium. The human heart and its disorders (cardiopathies) are studied primarily by cardiology. |