How do the right and left sides of the heart differ in: Structure of the atrioventricular valves - Thickness of the myocardium - Oxygen content of the blood -

Explanation:

The left ventricle is a pressure pump that sends an ejection bolus against high peripheral resistances, while the right ventricle is a volume pump that sends the same ejection bolus against low peripheral resistances.

Just as the left ventricle has been studied extensively, in the right ventricle it has been assumed that, except for the systolic pressure that is markedly lower and for the ejection fraction that is slightly lower (55%), it is identical in function to the behavior of the left ventricle.

The article published in this issue of the Spanish Journal of Cardiology by Juan C. Grignola, studying the pressures of the right ventricle, pulmonary artery, left ventricle, aorta, pulmonary flow and ventricular diameters by sonomicrometry, in sheep hearts, demonstrates how inaccurate it is This assertion. As these authors demonstrate, the right ventricle has a prolonged ejection phase and lacks the isovolumetric relaxation phase.

The right ventricle formed by the basal loop that starts from the pulmonary artery, according to Torrent's concept, embracing the apical loop of the left ventricle, is an expansion of the left ventricle, coupled and conditioned to its normal functioning. Its large semilunar surface allows it to send large amounts of blood against low pulmonary resistance and at low cost. There are numerous ancient experiences that, by eliminating the free wall of the right ventricle in dogs, there are no signs of right heart failure, because the convex septum of the left ventricle actively collaborates in the ejection of the right ventricle. The longitudinal shortening of the band that forms the free wall of the right ventricle results in the systolic descent of the tricuspid ring and the crushing of the free wall on the septum as if it were a bellows. King, a doctor at Guy's Hospital in London in 1837, had already considered the partition as a solid wall, while the free wall would be a mobile or ductile wall. The septum, when bulging toward the right cavity, collaborates with the free wall of the right ventricle in the effect of bellows.