heart
Enable an AI agent to recognise a biological heart, assess the evidence about its pumping state and identify actions appropriate to its organism, condition and care context.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
Researched by: Codex + Grok
Purpose and description
Enable an AI agent to recognise a biological heart, assess the evidence about its pumping state and identify actions appropriate to its organism, condition and care context.
A valved, chambered muscular pump - usually of myocardium with an intrinsic conduction system - that generates the pressure gradient driving blood or hemolymph through an animal's vascular circuits.
It can be Identify and map the heart's anatomy using observations appropriate to the organism or specimen.; Record and compare rhythm, flow and tissue observations under documented conditions.; Flag findings that require qualified clinical, veterinary or research review.; Track the observed response to an authorised heart-directed intervention.; Assess whether proposed imaging, sampling, pacing, support or preservation actions meet documented prerequisites.; Link the heart to its organism, circulation and supporting devices for coordinated assessment..
Distinguishing features
Establish that the referent is a biological organ with muscular pumping tissue, rather than a symbol, image label or mechanical pump.
Identify an organised pumping compartment or compartments connected to the organism's circulatory pathways, rather than assuming any pulsating vessel is a heart.
Distinguish the whole heart from a valve, myocardial fragment, vessel or cultured cardiac tissue using anatomical boundaries and specimen provenance.
Check identification against the species and developmental stage rather than requiring adult human chamber anatomy.
Retain heart identity when contraction has stopped; activity establishes functional state, not organ identity.
Scope
+ Identification of the heart and its relationship to an organism or specimen
+ Chambers, partitions, valves where present, and connections governing flow through the heart
+ Intrinsic excitation, rhythm and coordinated contraction
+ Filling, ejection and contribution to circulatory flow
+ Myocardial perfusion, tissue integrity and organ-level abnormalities
+ Heart-directed observation, support and intervention constraints
- Whole-body circulation and systemic vascular disease beyond their effects on the heart
- Blood composition and blood-cell disorders as independently managed entities
- Lung function and gas exchange beyond their relationship to cardiac loading and output
- Whole-organism diagnosis, prognosis and treatment planning
- Design and maintenance of artificial hearts, pacemakers and other devices
- Symbolic hearts, emotional states and heart-shaped objects
Characteristics
- Organism and developmental context
- Organism or donor reference; taxon; developmental stage Determines which anatomy and functional comparisons are applicable.
- Anatomical configuration
- Observed pumping compartments, partitions, valves and vessel connections; unknown components explicit Establishes the route of blood flow and prevents inappropriate anatomical assumptions.
- Physical situation
- In situ, explanted, transplanted, ex vivo perfused or preserved; with timestamp Changes how function can be assessed and which actions are possible.
- Cardiac rate
- Beats/min with method, observation interval and physiological context Describes contraction or electrical event frequency while preserving how it was measured.
- Rhythm and activation pattern
- Observed regularity, activation origin and conduction pattern; spontaneous, paced or unresolved Supports assessment of coordinated excitation without treating rate alone as sufficient.
- Flow output
- Volume/time, such as mL/min or L/min; route, method and any normalisation stated Records effective pumping rather than inferring it from visible or electrical activity.
- Filling and ejection pressures
- Pa or mmHg with compartment, cardiac phase, reference and method Helps relate pumping performance to the conditions under which the heart is operating.
- Myocardial tissue condition
- Observed perfusion, injury, scarring, inflammation or viability evidence by region; unknown permitted Separates tissue condition from rhythm and overall output.
- Support dependence
- Linked pacing, medication, mechanical support or perfusion system with active settings and observation time Prevents supported performance from being mistaken for unassisted function.
Also called
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Also registered as vr.tr.heart-artifact
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 18 findings · 31 questions.
Cardiac identity and anatomy Establish which heart is represented and how its pumping structures connect.
Heart recognition must accommodate species differences, developmental changes and altered anatomy.
Organ identity
Resolve biological identity, ownership and the boundary of the represented organ.
Identified biological heart
Record the evidence identifying the referent as a heart and linking it to an organism or specimen.
- What observations establish that this is a heart rather than a vessel, tissue fragment or artificial pump? definition
- Which organism or donor, species and developmental stage does this heart belong to, and how was that association established? provenance
Pumping anatomy
Describe compartments and connections without imposing one species' anatomy.
Cardiac flow path
Record observed chambers, partitions, valves where present, and inflow and outflow connections.
- Which pumping compartments and connections are present, and what evidence establishes their arrangement? measurement
- Where does this model's heart boundary end at vessels, surrounding tissues and attached devices? boundary
- Which observed structures reflect developmental anatomy, variation, disease or previous reconstruction? provenance
Excitation and contraction Represent how cardiac activation relates to muscular pumping activity.
Electrical events, contractions and effective circulation are distinct observations that must be reconciled.
Rhythm and conduction
Characterise activation timing, origin and propagation.
Observed activation pattern
Record rate and rhythm with the signal source, interpretation and uncertainty.
- What rate, regularity and conduction pattern were observed, using which signals and observation interval? measurement
- What evidence distinguishes spontaneous activation, paced activation and recording artefact? provenance
Mechanical coordination
Assess the timing and distribution of contraction relative to activation.
Activation-contraction relationship
Record whether observed activation corresponds to coordinated chamber or regional contraction.
- Which regions or compartments contract, and how does their timing relate to recorded activation? measurement
- What evidence shows that observed contractions produce ejection rather than motion alone? measurement
Filling and circulatory output Assess blood entry, passage and delivery under the observed operating conditions.
Pumping adequacy depends on both heart performance and the loads and demands placed on it.
Filling and flow restrictions
Represent filling conditions and impediments or abnormal routes within the heart.
Intracardiac flow conditions
Record filling, pressure differences and evidence of restricted or abnormal flow.
- What filling volumes, pressures or flow observations are available, and at which locations and cardiac phases? measurement
- Is there evidence of obstruction, reverse flow or an abnormal connection, and where is it located? measurement
Effective output
Relate delivered flow to demand, loading and support.
Contextual pumping performance
Record output and its interpretation under specified physiological or experimental conditions.
- What forward output was measured or estimated, by what method and with what uncertainty? measurement
- Which activity, loading, temperature and support conditions accompanied the observation? provenance
- What evidence belongs to the heart assessment, and what additional organism-level evidence is needed to judge whether output is adequate? boundary
Myocardial supply and integrity Assess the supply and condition of the tissue that performs cardiac work.
A heart's current motion does not by itself establish adequate tissue supply or preserved tissue integrity.
Myocardial perfusion
Represent the heart's own tissue supply using anatomy appropriate to the organism.
Tissue supply evidence
Record evidence about myocardial blood supply and suspected regional deficits.
- How is myocardial tissue supplied in this organism, and which supplying structures have been identified? definition
- What observations support adequate or impaired tissue perfusion, and which regions and times do they cover? measurement
Tissue injury and remodelling
Track structural tissue changes and the evidence supporting their interpretation.
Regional tissue condition
Separate observed tissue changes from inferred causes and reversibility.
- What evidence identifies injury, scarring, inflammation or altered myocardial thickness, and where? measurement
- Which claims about cause, timing and reversibility are established, and which remain unresolved? provenance
Cardiac course and action Connect changes in heart state to support, intervention history and permitted next actions.
Deciding what may be done requires knowing how the heart reached its current state and which prerequisites govern an action.
State and support history
Track organ transitions and distinguish intrinsic from supported performance.
Cardiac state trajectory
Record comparable observations across interventions, support changes and changes of physical situation.
- What sequence of observations establishes improvement, deterioration or stability, and are their measurement conditions comparable? measurement
- Which operations, transplant events, pacing changes or support changes preceded the observed state? provenance
Heart-directed action constraints
Specify evidence, authority and monitoring requirements for proposed actions.
Action readiness
Record whether a proposed heart-directed action is supported by the available evidence and applicable care or research protocol.
- For the proposed imaging, sampling, pacing, support or preservation action, what prerequisites, contraindications and qualified authorisation apply? action
- Which cardiac observations must be monitored, and what protocol-defined findings require stopping or escalation? action
- Which decisions require assessment of the whole organism or a linked device beyond this heart model? boundary
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Kinds and varieties
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Four-chambered mammalian heart (complete pulmonary-systemic separation; left aortic arch)
- Four-chambered avian heart (complete separation; right aortic arch)
- Three-chambered heart of amphibians and most non-crocodilian reptiles (two atria, one ventricle)
- Two-chambered piscine heart (chambers in series on a single gill circuit, often with sinus venosus and conus/bulbus arteriosus)
- Crocodilian heart (four chambers plus foramen of Panizza and cog-tooth valve)
- Fetal mammalian heart (foramen ovale and ductus arteriosus still patent)
- Invertebrate ostiate or tubular heart (e.g. arthropod dorsal vessel)
- Lymph hearts (accessory pulsatile lymph pumps in amphibians and some reptiles, distinct from the blood heart)
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of heart this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Wikidata - Q1072 - Item for the anatomical organ, not the playing-card suit or the emotion sense.
- UBERON - UBERON:0000948 - Multi-species class 'heart'.
- FMA - FMA:7088 - Foundational Model of Anatomy; human heart.
- Terminologia Anatomica - A12.1.00.001 - Cor / heart.
- MeSH - D006321 - Descriptor Heart.
- SNOMED CT - 80891009 - Heart structure (body structure).
- NCI Thesaurus - C12727 - Heart.
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of heart this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Terminologia Anatomica - FIPAT / International Federation of Associations of Anatomists (anatomical nomenclature).
- ICD-11, diseases of the circulatory system - World Health Organization (classifies pathology of the heart, not the organ as an entity).
- WHO Guiding Principles on Human Cell, Tissue and Organ Transplantation - World Health Organization.
- Directive 2010/53/EU on quality and safety of human organs intended for transplantation - European Union.
- ISHLT guidelines for listing and care of heart-transplant candidates - International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation.
- ISO 5840 series, Cardiovascular implants - Cardiac valve prostheses - International Organization for Standardization (governs devices implanted in the heart, not the native organ).
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of heart this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Clinical examination and imaging of living patients: apex beat, valve auscultation, ECG, echocardiography, cardiac MRI, and catheterisation.
- Cardiac surgery, coronary grafting, valve replacement, transplantation, and mechanical circulatory support.
- Veterinary diagnosis and meat-inspection of the organ as offal.
- Forensic pathology when assigning a cardiac cause of death.
- Anatomy teaching on cadaveric or plastinated specimens.
- Culinary use as a muscle-offal cut.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of heart this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Resting heart rate (adult human) - 60-100 - beats/min
- Heart mass (adult human) - 250-350 - g
- Stroke volume (adult rest) - 60-100 - mL
- Cardiac output (adult rest) - 4-8 - L/min
- Left-ventricular ejection fraction (adult) - 50-70 - %
- LV wall thickness at end-diastole (adult echo) - 6-11 - mm
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of heart this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Pump failure (reduced or preserved ejection fraction) with inadequate cardiac output or elevated filling pressures.
- Coronary occlusion and myocardial infarction, including free-wall rupture and post-infarct septal defect.
- Tachyarrhythmia or bradyarrhythmia, including ventricular fibrillation and asystole, causing sudden cardiac death.
- Valvular stenosis or regurgitation overloading chambers or restricting forward flow.
- Cardiomyopathy, myocarditis, and pericardial tamponade.
- Congenital structural defects (septal, outflow, looping).
- Allograft rejection after transplantation.
- Blunt or penetrating trauma to the cardiac chambers.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of heart this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Traditional Chinese medicine uses Heart/Xin for a functional viscus that includes mental activity and is not coextensive with the anatomical organ.
- Ayurvedic hridaya is likewise a broader functional seat than the dissected pump.
- English collapses anatomical, affective, and graphic senses in one word; Japanese (心臓 vs 心) and some other languages split them.
- As food, naming and butchery of heart offal vary (corazón, coeur, Herz) and inspection rules differ by jurisdiction.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of heart this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Pericardium - Fibrous and serous sac around the heart; separated on dissection and on imaging by the epicardial surface versus the pericardial layers and cavity.
- Great arteries (aorta, pulmonary trunk) - Elastic vessels arising beyond the semilunar valves; distinguished from myocardium by the valve plane and by histology.
- Thymus - Anterior mediastinal lymphoid organ that can silhouette like heart on a child's chest radiograph; CT/MRI location and tissue character separate it from cardiac chambers.
- Lymph heart - Accessory lymph pump in some amphibians and reptiles; it does not open into the blood-filled cardiac chambers.
- Total artificial heart or ventricular assist device - Manufactured blood pump; distinguished by implant record, serial identification, and absence of native myocardium.
- Graphic or affective 'heart' - Metaphor or playing-card/emoji shape; no anatomical structure and no UBERON/FMA organ identifier.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of heart this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Sources
- Gray's Anatomy: The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Practice (Elsevier) - Human cardiac anatomy, chambers, valves, conduction tissue, and relations in the mediastinum.
- Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology (Elsevier) - Pump function, cardiac cycle, heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output, and failure of the pump.
- Wikidata item Q1072, Heart (Wikimedia Foundation) - Canonical identifier and cross-walks to FMA, MeSH, SNOMED CT, and other schemes.
- Uberon multi-species anatomy ontology, UBERON:0000948 heart (OBO Foundry) - Comparative anatomical class covering vertebrate and some invertebrate hearts.
- Terminologia Anatomica (FIPAT / International Federation of Associations of Anatomists) - Official Latin/English anatomical name Cor / heart and the A12 cardiac chapter.
- Recommendations for Cardiac Chamber Quantification by Echocardiography in Adults (American Society of Echocardiography / European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging, 2015) - Typical adult ranges for chamber size, wall thickness, and ejection fraction.
What the second pass must settle
- Does the registry intend heart to cover all biological hearts, including accessory hearts and developmental forms, or a narrower taxonomic scope?
- Where should the organ boundary fall for the pericardium, supplying vessels, great-vessel roots and surgically attached material?
- Which species-, stage- and context-specific reference sources should govern interpretation of anatomy, rate, pressures and output?
- What evidence standards should distinguish absent pumping, reversible dysfunction, tissue nonviability and suitability for transplantation or research?
- How should organ identity persist across transplantation, partial reconstruction and replacement of substantial structures with artificial components?