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Myocardial contractility represents the innate ability of the heart muscle (cardiac muscle or myocardium) to contract.It is the maximum attainable value for the force of contraction of a given heart.
A molecule, called adenosine triphosphate (ATP) which is produced by an intracellular structure called a mitochondrion, is then used, as a source of energy, to help move the myosin head, carrying the actin. As a result, the actin slides across the myosin filament shortening the muscle. This is called a power stroke.
Contraction that squeezes blood towards the exit is more efficient than a simple squeeze from all directions. Although the ventricular stimulus originates from the AV node in the wall separating the atria and ventricles, the Bundle of His conducts the signal to the apex. Depolarization propagates through cardiac muscle very rapidly.
Release of Ca 2+ from the SR, via a process called calcium-induced calcium release, is vital for the plateau phase of the action potential (see phase 2, below) and is a fundamental step in cardiac excitation-contraction coupling. [7]
Depiction of smooth muscle contraction. Muscle contraction is the activation of tension-generating sites within muscle cells. [1] [2] In physiology, muscle contraction does not necessarily mean muscle shortening because muscle tension can be produced without changes in muscle length, such as when holding something heavy in the same position. [1]
The cardiac cycle is the performance of the human heart from the beginning of one heartbeat to the beginning of the next. [1] It consists of two periods: one during which the heart muscle relaxes and refills with blood, called diastole, following a period of robust contraction and pumping of blood, called systole. [1]
Cardiac physiology or heart function is the study of healthy, unimpaired function of the heart: involving blood flow; myocardium structure; the electrical conduction system of the heart; the cardiac cycle and cardiac output and how these interact and depend on one another.
The Frank-Starling mechanism occurs as the result of the length-tension relationship observed in striated muscle, including for example skeletal muscles, arthropod muscle [4] and cardiac (heart) muscle. [5] [6] [7] As striated muscle is stretched, active tension is created by altering the overlap of thick and thin filaments. The greatest ...