Wall of the Heart.
The wall of the heart is muscular, which pumps blood 72 times per minute, 24×7, throughout life, without a pause, and it generates its own electric impulse to keep on pumping. The blood pumped by the heart travels a 97,000 kms long network of blood vessels – - impressive stats indeed! You could read some more such fascinating heart facts. The purpose is solely to stress on importance of the heart wall.
Walls of the Heart|Layers of Heart.
The heart is composed of three layers or walls:
- Pericardium – the outermost layer of the heart.
- Myocardium – the middle layer of the heart which is specialized heart muscle.
- Endocardium – the innermost layer or the inner lining of the heart.
Picture of Layers of the heart wall.
Pericardium.
The pericardium is the outermost wall of the heart. It is a tough protective double walled sac which is filled with pericardial fluid. The pericardial membrane helps anchor the heart to the neighboring tissues and maintain its location and, on account of the pericardial fluid between its two layers also helps to facilitates the movements of the heart of contraction and relaxation and movements due to external factors such as expansion and contraction of the lungs.
The pericardium again is made up the outer fibrous pericardium and the inner serous pericardium. The inner serous pericardium again has two layers – the outer parietal layer and the inner visceral layer which forms the epicardium — the outer layer of heart tissue. A full note of pericardium heart layer gives more details.
Myocardium.
The myocardium is the middle wall or layer of the heart and lies between the pericardium and the endocardium. The myocardium is made up of involuntary cardiac muscle which brings about the continuous and involuntary contraction and relaxation of the upper chambers and the lower chambers of the heart. It is this pumping action which is responsible for flow of blood to all parts of the body. The muscle cells which form the myocardium are called cardiomyocites. You could read the full note on myocardium.
Endocardium.
The endocardium is the innermost layer of the heart and which is in contact with the blood inside the heart. It continues into the blood vessels and merges into the inner lining of the blood vessels which is called the endothelium.
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