Understanding Heart Parts: Comparing the Right and Left Atria

[biferi]

Is the Right Atrium and Left Atrium the same size?

 

[Ryan_m_b]

The left atrium should me slightly larger in volume.

Here's a paper that looks at 3D echocardiography for determining atrial volume with some data for the differences
http://ehjcimaging.oxfordjournals.org/content/1/1/55.full.pdf

 

[biferi]

I know after the Blood gets pumppet to the Lungs to the Oxygen it then returns to the Left Atrium.

Am I right that the Left Lung has a Pulmonary Vein that goes to the back of the Left Atrium and the Right Lung has a Pulmonary Vein that goes to the back of the Left Atrium and this is how the Left Atrium get the Blood that has the Oxigen?

 

[DarioC]

Funny I should click on this, as I have a heart condition known as atrial fibrillation.

Actually there are four pulmonary arteries going into the left atrium. Yes, arteries. Go figure. They come directly from the lungs.

I suspect there are four so we dummies can run a lot of fast 5 k's when we are 60 and in the process blow out the same atrium.

The atrium, as I understand it, acts rather like a supercharger, giving several pulses of blood into the ventricle which then (all loaded up) pushes it out to the body.

I've never paid much attention to how the other half works, but I believe it pumps the blood coming back from the body out to the lungs.

DC

 

[LudusRex]

No, the right and left atria are not the same size. The right atrium is typically smaller and thinner-walled compared to the left atrium. This is due to the fact that the right atrium only receives deoxygenated blood from the body and pumps it into the right ventricle, while the left atrium receives oxygenated blood from the lungs and pumps it into the left ventricle. The left atrium needs to be larger and stronger to accommodate the higher pressure of oxygenated blood and pump it throughout the body. Additionally, the left atrium has a thicker wall to withstand the force of contraction needed to pump blood into the systemic circulation, while the right atrium has a thinner wall as it only needs to pump blood into the nearby pulmonary circulation. Overall, the size and structure of the right and left atria reflect their specific functions in the circulation of blood throughout the body.