title: Exercises in anatomy: the normal heart.
abstract: In this series of videoclips, we analyze the anatomy of the normal heart. We begin our overview by emphasizing the need, in the current era, to describe the heart in attitudinally appropriate fashion. Increasingly, clinicians are demonstrating the features of the heart as it is located within the body. It is no longer satisfactory, therefore, to describe these components in a ‘Valentine’ fashion, as continues to be the case in most textbooks of normal or cardiac anatomy.
  
  We then emphasize the importance of the so-called morphological method, which states that structures within the heart should be defined on the basis of their own intrinsic morphology, and not according to other parts, which are themselves variable. We continue by using this concept to show how the appendages serve to distinguish between the atrial chambers, while the apical trabecular components provide the features to distinguish the ventricles. We then return to the cardiac chambers, emphasizing features of surgical significance, in particular the locations of the cardiac conduction tissues. We proceed by examining the cardiac valves, and conclude by providing a detailed analysis of the septal structures.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Genetic Medicine, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK sejjran@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Robert H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, Lurie Children's Hospital, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sarwark
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Cardiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA Children's Heart Institute of Florida, All Children's Hospital, St Petersburg, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Diane E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Spicer
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, Lurie Children's Hospital, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Carl L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Backer
mesh_terms: D001296:Audiovisual Aids; D002309:Cardiology / Q000193:education / Q000379:methods; D002648:Child; D019992:Databases as Topic; D006321:Heart / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans
keywords: Arterial trunks; Atrial chambers; Attitudinally appropriate nomenclature; Cardiac surgery; Ventricular chambers