Because of the watertight lining of the heart (the endocardium) and the thickness of the myocardium, the heart cannot depend on the blood contained in its own chambers for oxygen and nourishment. It possesses a vascular system of its own, called the coronary arterial system. In the most common distribution, this comprises two major coronary arteries, the right and the left; normally, the left coronary artery divides soon after its origin into two major branches, called the left anterior descending and the circumflex coronary arteries. The right, the left anterior descending, and the left circumflex coronary arteries have many branches and are of almost equal importance. Thus, there are commonly said to be three main functional coronary arteries rather than two.

The right and left coronary arteries originate from the right and left aortic sinuses (the sinuses of Valsalva), which are bulges at the origin of the ascending aorta immediately beyond, or distal to, the aortic valve. The ostium, or opening, of the right coronary artery is in the right aortic sinus and that of the left coronary artery is in the left aortic sinus, just above the aortic valve ring. There is also a non-coronary sinus of Valsalva, which lies to the left and posteriorly at the origin of the ascending aorta. The left coronary arterial system is more important than the right because it supplies blood to the larger left ventricle, and the dimension of the left coronary ostium is larger than that of the right.

The right coronary artery has a lumen diameter of about 2.5 mm (0.1 inch) or more. It supplies the right ventricular outflow tract, the sinoatrial node (the principal pacemaker of the heart), the atrioventricular node, and the bulk of the right ventricle, with branches extending into the interventricular septum and joining with arteriolar branches from the left coronary artery more or less where the two ventricles join.

The main stem of the left coronary artery has a luminal diameter often exceeding 4.5 mm (0.2 inch) and is one of the shortest and most important vessels of the body. Usually, it is between 1 and 2 cm (0.4 and 0.8 inch) in length, but it may have a length of only 2 mm (0.08 inch) before dividing. Sometimes the main left coronary artery may actually be missing, with the left coronary ostium having two separate openings for the left anterior descending and the left circumflex arteries. The main left coronary artery divides into its two branches, the anterior descending and the circumflex, while still in the space between the aorta and pulmonary artery. The left anterior descending coronary artery usually begins as a continuation of the left main coronary artery, and its size, length, and distribution are key factors in the balance of the supply of blood to the left ventricle and the interventricular septum. There are many branches of the left anterior descending artery; the first and usually the largest septal branch is important because of its prominent role in supplying blood to the septum.

The left circumflex artery leaves the left main coronary artery to run posteriorly along the atrioventricular groove. It divides soon after its origin into an atrial branch and an obtuse marginal branch. The former branch sometimes has a branch to the sinoatrial node (more usually supplied from the right coronary artery). The obtuse marginal vessel supplies the posterior left ventricular wall in the direction of the apex.

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Venous blood from the heart is carried through veins, which usually accompany the distribution of the distal arteries. These cardiac veins, however, proceed into the atrioventricular grooves anteriorly and posteriorly to form the coronary venous sinus, which opens into the right atrium.

In addition to these identifiable anatomic arterial and venous channels, nutritional exchange almost certainly takes place between the endocardial ventricular muscle layers and the blood in the cavity of the ventricles. This is of minor importance and probably is an adaptive system in situations of cardiac muscle pathology.

Regulation of heartbeat

Regular beating of the heart is achieved as a result of the inherent rhythmicity of cardiac muscle; no nerves are located within the heart itself, and no outside regulatory mechanisms are necessary to stimulate the muscle to contract rhythmically. That these rhythmic contractions originate in the cardiac muscle can be substantiated by observing cardiac development in the embryo (see above); cardiac pulsations begin before adequate development of nerve fibres. In addition, it can be demonstrated in the laboratory that even fragments of cardiac muscle in tissue culture continue to contract rhythmically. Furthermore, there is no gradation in degree of contraction of the muscle fibres of the heart, as would be expected if they were primarily under nervous control.

The mere possession of this intrinsic ability is not sufficient, however, to enable the heart to function efficiently. Proper function requires coordination, which is maintained by an elaborate conducting system within the heart that consists primarily of two small, specialized masses of tissue, or nodes, from which impulses originate, and of nervelike conduits for the transmission of impulses, with terminal branches extending to the inner surface of the ventricles.

Rhythmic cardiac contractions originate with an electrical impulse that travels from the top of the heart in the atria to the bottom of the heart in the ventricles. The impulse is propagated as a wave that travels from cell to cell. Voltage-sensitive protein channels on the surface of the sarcolemma, the membrane that surrounds the muscle fibre, support the flow of current as it relates to the flow of specific ions (ion-specific channels). These voltage-sensitive channels open and close as a function of the voltage that is sensed on the outer side and inner side (referred to as being “across the membrane,” or transmembrane) of the sarcolemma, between which a difference in electrical potential exists. An electrical potential gradient is created by an excess of negative ions immediately inside the sarcolemma and an equal excess of positive ions on the outside of the sarcolemma (a stage known as the resting potential). When a nerve impulse stimulates ion channels to open, positive ions flow into the cell and cause depolarization, which leads to muscle cell contraction.

Under resting conditions the heart cell is primarily permeable only to positively charged potassium ions, which slowly leak into the cell. In specialized pacemaking cells, found in the sinoatrial node, the negative resting potential rhythmically drifts toward the positive threshold potential. When the threshold potential is exceeded, depolarization of the cell is triggered, and there is an opening of ion channels that transport sodium and calcium into the cell. This sudden increase in cardiac membrane potential is transmitted from cell to cell, creating a wave of depolarization that functionally represents the excitation signal of the heart. Propagation of the signal rapidly progresses down conduction tissue via specialized atrial cells, the atrioventricular node, and the bundles of His and Purkinje cells and is followed by a slower dispersion of the signal in ventricular muscle cells. The rate of spontaneous depolarization is an important determinant of heart rate.

Both the excitation and propagation mechanisms are sensitive to alterations in the ion concentration of the extracellular and intracellular fluid, as well as drugs that might alter the carriers or channels associated with these ions. Following the initial depolarization event in cardiac muscle cells, there is a sequence of openings and closures of specific channels that ultimately result in a return to the resting transmembrane potential. This highly orchestrated interaction of different voltage-sensitive channels, and the resultant changes in transmembrane voltage, is termed the cardiac action potential.

The depolarization event in the cardiac muscle cell also opens a calcium channel, allowing calcium to enter the myocardium. Calcium is an important effector of the coupling between cardiac depolarization (excitation) and cardiac contraction (called “excitation-contraction coupling”). Under normal circumstances, free calcium ion concentration in the cardiac muscle cell is very low. This low concentration is maintained by the presence of an internal membrane system called the sarcoplasmic reticulum that sequesters calcium ions. Upon excitation and depolarization of the cell, the calcium channel opens and admits a small amount of calcium associated with the shift in the membrane potential. This small amount of calcium stimulates the release of additional calcium from calcium-sensitive channels in the sarcoplasmic reticulum, causing the cellular calcium concentration to rise by nearly 100-fold. When the heart is repolarized, the sarcoplasmic reticulum reabsorbs the excess calcium, and the cellular calcium concentration returns to its formerly low level, letting the heart muscle relax.

Reabsorption of cellular calcium by the sarcoplasmic reticulum is important because it prevents the development of muscle tension. In the resting state, two proteins, troponin and tropomyosin, bind to actin molecules and inhibit interaction between actin and myosin, thereby blocking muscle contraction. When calcium concentration increases during depolarization, it shifts the conformation of troponin and tropomyosin, and actin is able to associate with myosin. As calcium is taken up again by the sarcoplasmic reticulum the myocardial cell relaxes. Factors that control the rise and fall of calcium concentrations in the cardiac muscle cell have profound effects on cardiac function.