Heart Dissection Lab

1. The purpose of the pericardium is to protect the heart and surround it in a tight wrapping to prevent it from possibly tearing apart from the force of its beating. It also lubricates the outside of the heart to prevent friction.
2. Arteries seem to be substantially thicker and have ridges on the inside, whereas veins are smooth on the inside and much thinner.
3. The auricles serves as extensions of the atria to allow for more blood to fill the heart. Being that they feel very elastic when stretched, it probably expands to let much more blood in than would regularly enter the atrium.
4. The exterior appearance of the ventricles, at first sight, seem to be a darker tissue as compared to the atria. The atria also are packed with much more visceral fat than the ventricles.
5. The exit of the coronary sinus can be seen on the posterior side of the heart, and unfortunately was blocked to the eye by the massive amount of fat covering the area of the right atria.

The posterior view of the heart

The exit from the inferior vena cava was also cut off from our heart, but would have been located at the end of the extension of the superior vena cava.

The right atrioventricular valve, or the tricuspid valve is white in color, and has branches connecting it to the papillary muscles, which are presumably the chordae tendinae.

6. The tricuspid valve looks as such:

7. The anchoring of the heart valves by the chordae tendinae and the papillary muscle are important to heart function because it prevents the valve from caving in on itself, and allowing backflow of the blood to happen.

8. The white chordae tendinae can be seen, and there are ridges inside of the auricle. The endocardium of the left atrium is shiny and pale as compare to the myocardium that we cut into.

Cut inside the pulmonary vein

9. The function of the semi-lunar valves are to prevent artery blood from re-entering the heart.

10a. This might happen because that is where the inferior vena cava is, and backflow in that area might send unnecessary blood back to where it was coming from, which is the lower half of the body.

b. You might expect to see complications such as shortness of breath if valve disease occurs in the left side of the body, because the pulmonary veins and the pulmonary artery are located in that general area; lack of efficiency in these parts of the heart means that pathway of deoxygenated blood to the lungs as well as the oxygenated blood from the lungs is impaired as well, causing both the heart and the lungs to work harder.

11.The chordae tendinae look like cartilage, and the papillary muscle as expected creates a thicker amount of tissue to cut through. 

Cut into the aorta

12. The left side of the heart is much more spacious and also meatier in the myocardium surrounding the atria as compared to the right side of the heart, most likely because there needs to be more muscle to pump blood throughout the body as compared to just the heart.

13. On the right side of the heart, we can see the right ventricle, and on the left side, the left left ventricle. The interventricular septum and atrioventricular septum separate the two chambers as the meaty barrier in between. The epicardium layer is the outermost layer, with the myocardium being the reddish flesh in the middle, and the endocardium lining the inside of the 2 ventricles that can be seen in the photo. Other features are labeled on the photo.

Heart Video:

Extra Credit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH0IbrhdpA8