The Left Ventricle—General Considerations

Abstract

The left ventricular apex may be sharply angular or almost form a sector of a sphere—to it the term, apex of the heart, is usually assigned. The presence of an apex in a structure evokes definition of a base; the shape of the heart defies comparison to any geometric solid; nevertheless it is not unreasonable to anticipate the location of the base opposite the apex. In a horizontal plane transection neither the lateral wall of the right atrium nor the posterior wall of the left atrium subtend the apex—in spite of this fact, in most anatomic writings the term base is assigned to the latter. In an oblique A.P. transection, both the pulmonary and left ventricular ostia are opposite the apex, notwithstanding this, in clinical parlance the term base is restricted to the “origin of the great vessels”. In view of the absence of a base in any geometric sense and as a result of its different denotation, the term “base of the heart” will not be used.