Difference between Systole and Diastole
The heart is one of the most important or prominent organs in the human body. Understanding its operation can be overwhelming because it is a kind of piece of machinery that works so precisely that the slightest failure of it can result in death.
The heart works like a pump. Its job is to pump blood through veins and arteries , so that it is distributed throughout the entire body. The human heart has four chambers, the right atrium and left atrium (top) and the right ventricle and left ventricle (bottom).
Among its most basic processes, the two phases of the cardiac cycle (beat) are known as systole and diastole. As a curious fact, the cardiac cycle lasts about a second and does not stop until the moment of death. However, what can change is the frequency, depending on whether the individual is at rest or not.
Systole |
Diastole |
|
|---|---|---|
| What is it? | This is the active and powerful phase of the beat. In this the heart contracts, pumping blood into the pulmonary arteries and the aorta. | Instead, diastole is the relaxation phase. During this, the muscular walls of the heart relax, allowing the chambers to fill with blood. |
| blood direction | The blood is ejected from the heart. | In contrast, in diastole, blood enters the heart. |
| phases | The process of systole is divided into atrial systole and ventricular systole. | Similarly, diastole is divided into atrial diastole and ventricular diastole. |