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Multiple Choice

Cardiac Output is defined as the volume of blood pumped by the heart per minute.

Cardiac output is the amount of blood the heart pumps each minute, which comes from combining how much blood is ejected with each beat (stroke volume) and how many beats occur each minute (heart rate). In equations: CO = SV × HR. This fits the idea that if you know the volume per beat and how many beats happen per minute, you can multiply to get the total volume pumped per minute. For example, a stroke volume of about 70 mL per beat with a heart rate of 70 beats per minute yields roughly 4.9 L per minute. Volume per beat is just stroke volume, not cardiac output. Volume per hour would be the same concept but on an hourly timescale, not the standard per-minute definition. Volume returned to the heart per minute describes venous return; in steady-state conditions it matches cardiac output, but cardiac output is defined by what the heart pumps out, not what returns.

Cardiac output is the amount of blood the heart pumps each minute, which comes from combining how much blood is ejected with each beat (stroke volume) and how many beats occur each minute (heart rate). In equations: CO = SV × HR. This fits the idea that if you know the volume per beat and how many beats happen per minute, you can multiply to get the total volume pumped per minute. For example, a stroke volume of about 70 mL per beat with a heart rate of 70 beats per minute yields roughly 4.9 L per minute.

Volume per beat is just stroke volume, not cardiac output. Volume per hour would be the same concept but on an hourly timescale, not the standard per-minute definition. Volume returned to the heart per minute describes venous return; in steady-state conditions it matches cardiac output, but cardiac output is defined by what the heart pumps out, not what returns.