Seafood is a staple in nearly every Chilean's diet. Shellfish such as loco (abalone), erizo (sea urchin) and piure (an unusual red invertebrate) join more widely known fish, including sardines, salmon, congrio (conger eel) and atÃºn (yellowfin tuna).
To work efficiently, pipes need a way of regulating how much fluid can pass through them; they also need a way of switching the flow off completely. That's the job that valves do: valves are like mechanical switches that can turn pipes on and off or raise or lower the amount of fluid flowing through them.
Blood passes through a valve before leaving each chamber of the heart. The valves prevent the backward flow of blood. Valves are actually flaps (leaflets) that act as one-way inlets for blood coming into a ventricle and one-way outlets for blood leaving a ventricle. Normal valves have 3 flaps (leaflets), except the mitral valve, which only has 2 flaps. The 4 heart valves include: