Viscera (heart, lungs, liver, gastrointestinal tract)
Right atrium
Atrium dextrum cordis
- Origin
- Forms the right border of the heart, receiving deoxygenated blood from the superior vena cava, inferior vena cava, and coronary sinus
- Insertion
- Discharges into the right ventricle through the tricuspid atrioventricular orifice
- Function
- Collects systemic venous blood and transfers it into the right ventricle for pulmonary oxygenation
- Innervation
- Cardiac plexus; houses the sinoatrial (SA) node near the SVC junction and atrioventricular (AV) node in Koch's triangle
- Movement & chain
- Continuous passive venous filling during ventricular systole followed by active atrial contraction filling the right ventricle
- Palpation
- Assessed clinically by measuring central venous pressure (CVP) and observing jugular venous distention (JVD)
- Clinical
- Atrial flutter (cavotricuspid isthmus-dependent reentry), sinus node dysfunction, patent foramen ovale (PFO) risking paradoxical emboli.
- Segmental innervation
- T1-T4 dermatomes
- In clinical practice
- CVP monitoring via central venous lines, transvenous cardiac pacing lead placement, recognizing signs of right-sided heart failure (elevated JVP, peripheral edema)
- Region in the model
- Viscera (heart, lungs, liver, gastrointestinal tract)