The main job of the heart is to pump blood around the body to meet the demands of the organ systems.

The main pumping chambers of the heart are the left and right ventricles.

Contraction of the thick muscular walls of the ventricles generates the pressure needed to pump blood around the body.

Select below to learn about some common heart problems.

In a healthy heart, electrical waves pass smoothly through the muscle to provide coordinated contraction and efficient pumping.

Electrical disruption leads to fibrillation and chaotic contraction. This means the heart cannot generate enough pressure to pump the blood.

To fix a fibrillating heart, we need to apply a large electrical shock to reset the electrical waves. We need an Automated External Defibrillator (AED).

The heart muscle needs blood to survive. The healthy heart pumps blood to nourish itself through its coronary arteries.

In a heart attack, blocked arteries lead to muscle damage, which reduces the heart’s ability to pump blood.

Medication can help to unblock the arteries.

If blocked arteries are left untreated, more of the muscle gets damaged, and the pumping ability of the heart is severely reduced.

Medication can help to unblock the arteries.

The shape, stiffness and contraction force in the healthy heart maximises pumping performance.

Heart failure involves long term changes in heart properties due to factors such as high blood pressure.

High blood pressure means the heart needs to work harder to compensate and maintain its pumping performance.

This extra effort can make the heart muscle walls get thicker.

Following long-term high blood pressure, the heart loses its ability to compensate and effectively pump. This results in a larger heart with thinner muscular walls.