Left ventricle
Ventriculus sinister
CardiovascularOrgansThorax
- What it is
- The thick-walled, cone-shaped lower-left chamber of the heart. It forms the apex, the left border and most of the diaphragmatic (inferior) surface of the heart.
- Function
- Pumps oxygenated blood through the aortic valve into the aorta and the entire systemic circulation.
- Size
- Wall 8–12 mm thick (about three times the right ventricle); cavity ~120–150 mL at end-diastole; ejects ~70 mL per beat at rest.
- Clinical note
- Generates systolic pressures of ~120 mmHg; its wall thickens with long-standing high blood pressure, and its ejection fraction (normally 55–70%) is the key measure of heart failure.