MDS1004 Dissection 1

The heart

Learning Objectives
1. Examine a heart and identify the different surfaces
2. Identify the different chambers of the heart on the specimen.
3. Correlate these to the appropriate positions on a CXR.
4. Identify cardiac valves, papillary muscles on the specimen.
5. Examine the great vessels as they leave the heart and notice their relative positions.
6. Examine the pericardium.

Learning Stations ( 4 x 15 minutes each)

Specimen 1 - Closed hearts, CXR,

Place the heart as it would lie in the chest. Identify

a. The borders and surfaces of the heart in anatomical terms, the apex and base of the
heart.
b. Its atria, auricles, ventricles, atrio-ventricular and interventricular grooves.
c. Relate them to the positions on the CXR ( can you see the left auricle?).
d. Identify the large vessels entering and leaving the heart.
e. Where are these right and left sides in real anatomical terms? Are they purely right
and left??

Specimen 2 - Mediastinum and Chest specimens- CXR, G109, Skeleton.

a. Indicate the fibrous, serous parietal and serous visceral pericardium. Between which
two layers does the pericardial fluid lie?
b. Is there any opening to the pericardial cavity? What is the upper limit of the
pericardium.
c. How would a heart with a lot of pericardial fluid look like on a CXR?
d. What are the oblique and transverse sinuses? Find them. Do you know how one of
these is used in cardiac surgery?
e. What is the cardiac notch? Demonstrate it on the skeleton. Why would you need to
know it in the case of a patient with a lot of pericardial fluid causing cardiac
tamponade..where would you insert a needle for pericardiocenthesis?

Specimen 3 - Open hearts right atrium, right ventricle

a. Within the right atrium, indicate the auricle, musculi pectinati, rest of atrium ( what are
their embryological derivations), fossa ovalis, annulus ovalis, crista terminalis( if you
can find it), position of the sino-atrial node, position of the atriventricular node,
opening of the SVC, IVC, coronary sinus, ( their valves??), tricuspid valve.
b. In the right ventricle see if you can find the moderator band, position of the atrio-
ventricular bundle of His, papillary muscles, chordae tendinae, infundibulum and
pulmonary trunk/pulmonary valve.
c. How many cusps do the tricuspid and pulmonary valves have?
 d. Why do you think that intravenous drug abusers can get endocarditis (an infectious
disease effecting the valves of the heart) on the tricuspid valve ( right) whilst in other
people it is usually on the left side?
Specimen 4 - Open hearts left atrium, left ventricle.
a. In the left atrium, show the auricle, openings of the pulmonary veins.
b. In the left ventricle, show the mitral valve, trabeculae carneae, chordae tendinae,
septal and posterior walls, papillary muscles, apex, opening of the aorta, aortic
valve.
c. How many cusps do the aortic and mitral valves have?
d. What do you think would happen if following a heart attack, a papillary muscle
happens to die and then the dead tissue snaps?
e. Find the sinuses of the aortic valve and the pulmonary valve from which sinuses
do the coronary arteries originate?
f. If your atria stopped contracting, do you think blood would still flow from them into
the ventricles? Any areas where this might not be so easy? What could happen??