Ventricular is a heart chamber which collects blood from an atrium (another heart chamber that is smaller than a ventricle) and pumps it out of the heart. In a four-chambered heart, such as that in humans, there are two ventricular the right ventricular pumps blood into the pulmonary circulation for the lungs, and the left ventricular pumps blood into the systemic circulation for the rest of the body. Ventriculars have thicker walls than the atria, and thus can withstand higher blood pressure. Comparing the right and left ventricles, the left ventricle has thicker walls because it needs to pump blood to the whole body.

S3 (or third heart sound) is the name of the vibration. It occurs during the middle third of diastole, shortly after the second heart sound S2, giving a rhythm much like the cadence in the word ‘Kentucky’. S3 can be a normal finding in people under 40 years of age, but over this age is usually a sign of heart failure. It is usually low-pitched and is best heard with the bell of the stethoscope. Sometime it is difficult to hear. An S3 rhythm is also refers as ventricular gallop. Gallop ventricular rhythm is a rhythm of the heart on auscultation. The normal rhythm of the heart contains two audible sounds, called S1 and S2, giving the well-known “lub-dub” rhythm. The rhythms are usually caused by the closing of valves in the heart. A ventricular gallop rhythm contains another sound, called S3 or S4, dependent upon where in the cycle this added sound comes; it can also contain both of these sounds.

Gallop ventricular rhythm may be caused by the oscillation of blood back and forth between the walls of the ventricles initiated by inrushing blood from the atria. The third sound of the heart does not occur until the middle third of diastole is probably because during the early part of diastole, the ventricles are not filled sufficiently to create enough tension for reverberation.

The ventricular gallop rhythm itself does not need to be treated; the underlying cause requires correction; depending on the aetiology (abnormal condition) the gallop rhythm may resolve.