which part of the cardiac cycle represents the pumping of the heart muscle
Cardiac cycle The cardiac cycle is the performance of the human heart from the beginning of one heartbeat to the beginning of the next. It consists of two periods: one during which the heart muscle relaxes and refills with blood, called diastole (die-ASS-toe-lee), followed by a period of robust contraction and pumping of blood, dubbed systole (SIS-toe-lee). After emptying, the heart immediately relaxes and expands to receive another influx of blood returning from the lungs and other systems of the bodyâ€”before again contracting to pump blood to the lungs and those systems. A normally performing heart must be fully expanded before it can efficiently pump again. Assuming a healthy heart and a typical rate of 70 to 75 beats per minute, each cardiac cycle, or heartbeat, takes about 0.8 second to compete the cycle.[1]
Cardiac cycle "Ventricular diastole," begins when the ventricles starts to relax. At this point, some blood of the previous cycle's systole is still flowing out of the ventricles through the semilunar valves, due to the inertia of the moving blood column, which overcomes the higher pressure in the aorta/pulmonary trunk with respect to the pressure in the ventricles. This short lasting phase, called "protodiastole" ends with the closure of the semilunar valves, producing the second heart sound (S2). Now that both the AV valves and the semilunar valves are closed, the ventricles are now closed chambers. Hence, this phase is known as isovolumetric (also called isovolumic, isometric) relaxation phase. Then the atrioventricular (AV) valves (the mitral valve and the tricuspid valve) open, allowing blood to fill the ventricles. This ventricular inflow phase can be sub-divided into the 'first rapid filling phase' as blood rushes in from the atria as a result of ventricular dilation; a phase of slow ventricular filling called 'Diastasis', and the 'last rapid filling phase' due to atrial contraction (systole).