Day 2:
Day 2 of our dissection was to take a look at the cardiovascular system and identify fetal shunts, main vessels, and the chambers and valves of the heart.
FETAL SHUNTS
There are 3 fetal shunts: Ductus Venous a shunt that puts blood into the hepatic veins, Foramen Ovale which is the shunt the right atrium to the left skipping the lungs, and the last fetal shunt is the Ductus Artious which takes the blood from the right ventricle and it then enters the pulmonary trunk.
In the picture above we have located one of the three fetal shunts. This shunt is the Foramen Ovale. Once the heart is cut into sections you can find this fetal shunt rather easily. This shunt bypasses the lungs.
MAIN CARDIOVASCULAR VESSELS
Main vessels in the Cardiovascular System are Pulmonary trunk, superior and inferior vena cava, pulmonary veins, aorta, and the coronary arteries and veins.
Here we have found one of the main coronary arteries in the heart. The coronary arteries run along the surface of the heart if a coronary artery gets block it can cause a heart attack.
In the picture above we have located some more important vessels in the cardiovascular system. The subclavian arteries and veins supply the body with oxygenated blood(arteries) and bring the deoxygenated blood from the body to the heart then to the lungs. You can also see the Trachea which is attached to the lungs. The surperior vena cava brings deoxygenated blood from the head, neck, and arms and puts it in the right atrium.
In this next photo we can see one very important vessels this is the Aorta and you can see the aortic arch very nicely in this photo. The Aorta is the largest artery in the body it comes out of the left ventricle and supplies oxygenated blood to all parts of the body.
HEART CHAMBERS AND VALVES
The Heart has four chambers and two different types of valves. The chambers are Right Atrium, Right ventricle, Left Atrium, and Left Ventricle. Semi-lunar and Atrioventicular valves are the two different valves located in the heart.
front of the heart.
As you can see this is the front of the heart. All the chambers are located in the picture above. The right atrium is where deoxygenated blood comes into the heart through the superior and inferior vena cava and holds the blood until it is ready to enter the right ventricle. The right ventricle takes the deoxygenated blood from the right atrium and then send it out the pulmonary truck and pulmonary veins which takes it to the lungs to become oxygenated. The left atrium receives oxygenated blood from the pulmonary arteries once in the atrium it then goes into the left ventricle. The left ventricle sends the oxygenated blood into the aorta and the aorta then sends the oxygenated blood throughout the body.
back of the heart.
At the back of the heart you get a great view of the
veins and arteries that are entering and exiting the heart.
The Heart has two different types of valves located in four different places in the chambers of the heart. The heart is a one way blood flow system and valves insure that the blood only travels in one direction. In the picture above we found the semi-lunar valve, a semi-lunar valve can be found at the pulmonary veins and the aorta. This valve opens either in the right(pulmonary valve) or left(aorta valve) ventricle sending the blood down the pulmonary veins or the aorta. The second type of valve is atrioventricular valve which we could not find in our dissection. The atriocentricular valve is located in two different places in the heart. The first atrioventricular valve is located between the right atrium and right ventricle this is called the tricuspid valve and the second one is located between the left atrium and the left ventricle and is call the bicuspid valve. Both the tricuspid and bicuspid valve send blood from the atrium to the ventricle. Chordae Tendineae is a type of muscle that contacts in order for it to open and then once it relaxes the valve shuts.
In this picture you can see some Chordae Tendineae.
FUN FACT
In a fetal pig because it has not been born yet a lot of the blood in the heart is mixed because they do not have functional lungs that take in oxygen, so when we were dissecting our pigs heart we found a very good example of this. When you look at the picture below you can see the mixture of red a blue which shows you that the blood in this fetal pig has been mixed and by mixed blood I mean a mixture between oxygenated blood and deoxygenated blood.
