The inferior tip of the heart, lying just to the left of the sternum near the fourth and fifth ribs, is called what?
AThe base
BThe apex
CThe cardiac notch
DThe auricle
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: B. The apex
1. The heart is shaped somewhat like a pinecone, broad at the top and tapering toward the bottom.
2. The great veins and arteries attach to its superior surface, called the base.
3. The inferior tip, lying just to the left of the sternum between the fourth and fifth ribs, is called the apex.
4. The cardiac notch is a depression in the lung caused by the apex's leftward deviation, and the auricle is a flap of the atrium, so neither names the heart's inferior tip.
_Source: OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology (CC BY 4.0), Ch 19 "The Cardiovascular System: The Heart", section 19.1, p. 824_
Keep practising The Cardiovascular System: The Heart
Browse all The Cardiovascular System: The Heart questions for MBBS, or explore more Anatomy topics.
Related questions
Drag each part into its groupConduction system or valve?Compared to the tricuspid valve's three flaps, how many cusps does the mitral (bicuspid) vThe right ventricle receives blood from the right atrium through which valve?Which vessel drains most of the coronary veins and empties directly into the right atrium?The two sublayers of the pericardium are the tough outer fibrous pericardium and which morWhich chambers of the heart act as the primary pumping chambers, propelling blood to the lRoughly what is the typical weight range of an adult male heart, compared to a female hear