Encoded with permission for digital streaming by Films Media Group on March 14, 2013.

Films on Demand is distributed by Films Media Group for Films for the Humanities & Sciences, Cambridge Educational, Meridian Education, and Shopware.

Heartbeat: Intermediate (3:00)

Access requires authentication through Films on Demand.

Your heart has four chambers: the right atrium, the right ventricle, the left atrium, and the left ventricle. The superior vena cava and inferior vena cava are called the great vessels because they bring blood from the body to the heart. The pulmonary artery transports blood to your lungs. Your heart pumps oxygen-rich blood out through the aorta, the largest artery, to the rest of your body. A series of one-way valves keeps blood flowing in one direction. These valves are called the tricuspid valve, mitral valve (bicuspid valve), pulmonary semilunar valve, and aortic semilunar valve. Surgeons can inject green dye into the superior vena cava in order to watch the heart go through the cardiac cycle. First, blood enters the right atrium then flows through the tricuspid valve into the right ventricle. When the right ventricle contracts, the muscular force pushes blood through the pulmonary semilunar valve into the pulmonary artery.

Mode of access: Internet.

System requirements: FOD playback platform.