Is stroke volume the amount of blood pumped by one ventricle or both?
It is important to understand that there are two parallel blood flow systems in the body of most mammals, humans included (this applies only for non-pathologic states only and it also doesn’t apply to fetuses who have a series connection). These two circulations are the systemic circulation, which brings oxygen rich blood to the whole of your body, and the pulmonary circulation, which bring oxygen poor blood to the lungs to be oxygenated. These two circulations do not meet, unless the patient has a Patent Ductus Arteriosus or a septal defect in the heart. The left ventricle supplies the systemic circulation while the right ventricle supplies the pulmonary circulation. Therefore, each ventricle would have different stroke volumes as each ventricle supplies a different circulation. Note, however that though these are two circulations, they are not completely independent of each other as the blood that comes from the pulmonary circulation is the one that goes to the pulmonary veins and to
