Ask a Teacher

The heart is a muscular organ that pumps blood to all the tissues in your body through a network of blood vessels. The right side of the heart pumps blood through the lungs where it picks up oxygen. The left side of the heart receives the blood containing oxygen and pumps the blood to the rest of your body

The main functions of the heart can be summarised as follows:

The right-hand side of the heart receives de-oxygenated blood from the body tissues (from the upper- and lower-body via the superior vena cava and the inferior vena cava, respectively) into the right atrium. This de-oxygenated blood passes through the tricuspid valve into the right ventricle. This blood is then pumped under higher pressure from the right ventricle to the lungs via the pulmonary artery.

The left-hand side of the heart receives oxygenated blood from the lungs (via the pulmonary veins) into the left atrium. This oxygenated blood then passes through the bicuspid valve into the left ventricle. It is then pumped to the aorta under greater pressure (as explained below). This higher pressure ensures that the oxygenated blood leaving the heart via the aorta is effectively delivered to other parts of the body via the vascular system of blood vessels (incl. arteries, arterioles, and capillaries).