Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting: Circumventing Arterial Blockages In The Heart Myocardial infarction (heart attack) continues to be one of the leading causes of death among men and women. It is usually triggered by one or more blockages in the coronary arteries that prevent oxygenated blood from reaching the surface of the heart. These blockages occur [...]

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Exploring Your Heart’s Electrical Conduction Your heart has four chambers, four valves, two nodes, and a system of fibers known as the His-Purkinje system. The four chambers consist of two atria (upper chambers) and two ventricles (lower chambers). Your four valves consist of a tricuspid valve, pulmonary valve, mitral valve, and aortic valve. The tricuspid [...]

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How Congenital Heart Defects Are Diagnosed If a congenital heart defect is severe (for example, as in the case of tetralogy of Fallot), it will likely be diagnosed when a mother-to-be is pregnant. If it is not diagnosed during pregnancy, there is a high likelihood that it will be detected within weeks after she gives [...]

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Heart Murmurs: Causes And Forms Of Treatment As blood moves through your heart’s four chambers (i.e. atria and ventricles), it passes through one-way valves. As it does, the closing of those valves creates the sound of a heartbeat. A heart murmur (HM) is a “swooshing” noise that can be heard through a stethoscope. Not all [...]

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