Eat Your Hearts Out!

Rawr.

We recently performed another dissection lab and oddly enough it didn't reek of formaldehyde!  This time we performed our dissections on hearts, on Valentine's day nonetheless!  There were three hearts to choose from sheep, cow, and pig.  Our group decided to go with the smallest of the three, the sheep. 

Throughout the lab we were required to measure various sections and pieces of the heart to compare to the other animals hearts.  Once the outer parts were recorded we sliced the heart open "clam shell" style and inspected the inside.  

Here are our records:

Aorta- 1.5cm
Pulmonary Trunk- 1cm and 2.5 Length
Right Atrium Diameter-4cm
Left Atrium Diameter- 3.5cm
Right Ventricle Diameter-1.5cm and 5cm in length
Left Ventricle Diameter-1.5cm and 5.5 in length
Outer Wall thickness- 1cm

Some of the areas identified.

We then compared our results to other group's results of the cow and pig.  Here are the results.

Pig:                                    
Right Atrium: 4.5cm
Left Atrium: 4cm
Right Ventricle: 3cm
Left Ventricle: 2.5cm
Outer Wall:  .5-1cm
Aorta: 5x3cm
Pulmonary Trunk: 4cm

Cow

Right Atrium: 3cm

Left Atrium: 3cm

Right Ventricle: 3cm

Left Ventricle: 4.5cm

Outer Wall:  1-1.5cm

Aorta: 3cm

Pulmonary Trunk: 2.5cm

After reviewing the three hearts we agreed that the three hearts are all the same in structure, the only major difference was the size.  This is obviously due to the size of the animal and what is needed to carry out basic functions.  After we performed the dissection we reviewed an assortment of slides relating to sections and parts of the heart.  After comparing the slides of artery and vein, we agreed the artery has the thickest wall because more blood passes through more quickly. The cardiac muscle was next which we discovered was indeed striated.  We decided that having atherosclerotic plaque on the coronary artery could possibly lead to the heart clogging and thus heart attacks due to build up.