The Cardiac Output

Cardiac output refers to the volume of blood which the left ventricle forces into the aorta per minute of time. It must be noted that this term refers to the output of the left ventricle only,and that the total output is twice as much. The reason that the output ot the left ventricle is considered so important that it is given is special name is that it supplies the entire body (except the lungs) with the blood. Another reason is that it does a much greater amount of work than does the right and consequently is more likely to fail. The work that the ventricle does depends not only on the volume they must beat ,and that pressure is about six times as great in the aorta as in pulmonary artery - about 80 mm in the first and only about 15 mm in the second.