Heart transplant
cardiomyopathy (disease of the heart muscle); severe coronary artery disease (in which the heart’s blood vessels become blocked and the heart muscle is damaged); and congenital heart disease (birth defects of the heart).
A transplanted heart functions differently from the old one. Because the nerves leading to the heart are cut during the operation, the transplanted heart beats faster (about 100 to 110 beats per minute) than the normal heart (70 beats per minute). The new heart also responds more slowly to exercise and doesn’t increase its rate as quickly as before.
1
2
3
Next
Read Also:
- Heart valves
There are four heart valves. All are one-way valves. Blood entering the heart first passes through the tricuspid valve and then the pulmonary valve. After returning from the lungs, the blood passes through the mitral (bicuspid) valve and exits via the aortic valve.
- Heart ventricle
One of the two lower chambers of the heart. The right ventricle receives blood from the right atrium and pumps it into the lungs via the pulmonary artery, and the left ventricle receives blood from the left atrium and pumps it into the circulation system via the aorta.
- Heart, artificial
A human-made heart that is used to replace a diseased or malfunctioning heart when a donor organ is not available.
- Heart, left
The left atrium and left ventricle.
- Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National
One of the National Institutes of Health in the U.S., the NHLBI’s mission is to “provide leadership for a national research program in diseases of the heart, blood vessels, lungs, and blood and in transfusion medicine through support of innovative basic, clinical, and population-based and health education research.”