A heart valve normally allows blood flow in only one direction through the heart. The four valves commonly represented in a mammalian heart determine the pathway of blood flow through the heart. A heart valve opens or closes incumbent upon differential blood pressure on each side.
The four valves in the heart are:
- The two atrioventricular (AV) valves, which are between the atria and the ventricles, are the mitral valve and the tricuspid valve.
- The two semilunar (SL) valves, which are in the arteries leaving the heart, are the aortic valve and the pulmonary valve.
A form of heart disease occurs when a valve malfunctions and allows some blood to flow in the wrong direction. This is called regurgitation.
Read more about Heart Valve: Atrioventricular or Cuspid Valves, Semilunar Valves, Heart Valve Dynamics
Famous quotes containing the word heart:
“The heart of Paris is like nothing so much as the unending interior of a house. Buildings become furniture, courtyards become carpets and arrases, the streets are like galleries, the boulevards conservatories. It is a house, one or two centuries old, rich, bourgeois, distinguished. The only way of going out, or shutting the door behind you, is to leave the centre.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)