Heart valve
flap of tissue that prevent backflow of blood around the heart
A heart valve (cardiac valve) is a biological one-way valve that allows blood to flow in one direction through the chambers of the heart. A mammalian heart usually has four valves. Together, the valves determine the direction of blood flow through the heart. Heart valves are opened or closed by a difference in blood pressure on each side.
The mammalian heart has two atrioventricular valves separating the upper atria from the lower ventricles: the mitral valve in the left heart, and the tricuspid valve in the right heart. The two semilunar valves are at the entrance of the arteries leaving the heart. These are the aortic valve at the aorta, and the pulmonary valve at the pulmonary artery.
The heart also has a coronary sinus valve and an inferior vena cava valve, not discussed here.
Structure
The heart valves and the chambers are lined with endocardium. Heart valves separate the atria from the ventricles, or the ventricles from a blood vessel.
The public source identifies “Heart valve” as flap of tissue that prevent backflow of blood around the heart. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Heart, valve and flap.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Heart valve”, the useful work is to connect “flap of tissue that prevent backflow of blood around the heart” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q215620. The Library of Congress control number is sh85059727. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Heart valve” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.