It's Your Heart Trivia Quiz

Answer: 310 grams or about 11 ounces

The average adult human heart is about the size of a large man's closed fist and weighs about 310 grams or 11 ounces. This relatively small mass of special cardiac muscle, nerves, coronary vessels, smooth interior lining and valves beats an average of 60 to 80 times per minute without our even thinking about it. ((70 x 60) x (24)) amounts to more than 100,000 heart beats per day

Answer: 5,702 liters or about 6,000 quarts

(55 ml times 72 equals 3,960 ml per minute ((3,960 x 60) x (24))equals 5,702 liters per 24 hours which is about 6,000 quarts of blood.

Answer: Arterial systolic blood presssure

The pressure exerted by the contraction of the left ventricle to force oxygenated blood into the arterial blood vessels of the body is the arterial systolic blood pressure. In an adult this is normally about 110 to 130 mm. Hg. (millimeters of mercury as measured on a sphygnanometer).

Answer: Mitral valve

The tricuspid valve prevents blood from flowing from the right ventricle back into the right atrium. The mitral valve separates the left ventricle from the left atrium and prevents back flow. The closure of these two valves causes the first of the 'lubb-dubb' sounds that the physician hears when listening to the heart with his stethoscope.

Answer: Pulmonary Veins

When the blood returns to the right atrium through the vena cava veins, it is low in oxygen and high in carbon dioxide and then enters the right ventricle The contraction of the right ventricle has a stroke volume essentially the same as that of the left ventricle but forces blood against a much lower resistance into the pulmonary artery.

After passing through the capillaries of the lungs the blood is enriched with oxygen and carbon dioxide is removed. This highly oxygenated blood is then carried back to the heart by the pulmonary veins.

Answer: The beginning of the ascending aorta

The coronary arteries, which supply oxygenated blood to the heart muscle, are the first branches of the ascending aorta and the two major coronary arteries branch out from two of the three sinuses of Valsalva.

Answer: Left anterior descending coronary artery

The left anterior descending coronary artery runs down the anterior interventricular groove and often branches within the cardiac musculature. Most serious myocardial infarctions involve clotting or blockage of this coronary artery. Treatment within the first hour is critical for a favorable recovery. Death that occurs soon after the myocardial infarction is usually due to ventricular fibrillation.

Answer: 67 percent

Two thirds of the time for each cycle the heart is in the diastolic or non-contractile phase. However, when the ventricles are not contracting the arterial blood pressure does not fall to zero. (As it would be the case for a pump that forces fluid through a solid pipe in a plumbing system). If that were to occur in the human, the person would faint.

The major arteries are elastic and expand during the systolic phase and then slowly contract during diastole which maintains a diastolic arterial blood pressure of about 70 to 85 mm. Hg.

Answer: 134 mm. Hg.

As previously mentioned the heart is in the diastolic phase for two thirds of the cycle and it is in the contractile (systolic) phase for one third of the cycle. The mean arterial blood pressure is (((systolic pressure) + (diastolic pressure x 2)) divided by 3)).

This is the reason that a high diastolic pressure is generally a more serious form of hypertension and indicates a generalized atherosclerosis (hardening) of the arteries in the body.

Answer: Pulmonary artery branches into the arterial duct.

In the fetus the lungs are basically collapsed and do not receive any blood from the heart. Instead of dividing into two branches, the pulmonary artery passes through the arterial duct which connects to the descending aorta. After birth the child takes some breaths and usually cries, which causes the lungs to expand. Now the pulmonary artery divides into the right and left branches and with no resistance the blood flows through those vessels. Since it is no longer the point of least resistance, the arterial duct closes. All heart and main artery anatomy has assumed that of the normal adult.