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The cells that make up the SA node are specialized cardiomyocytes known as pacemaker cells that can spontaneously generate cardiac action potentials. These signals are propagated through the heart's electrical conduction system. [1][2] Only one percent of the heart muscle cells are conductive, the rest of the cardiomyocytes are contractile.
Rate dependence of the action potential is a fundamental property of cardiac cells and alterations can lead to severe cardiac diseases including cardiac arrhythmia and sometimes sudden death. [3] Action potential activity within the heart can be recorded to produce an electrocardiogram (ECG). This is a series of upward and downward spikes ...
The cardiac conduction system (CCS, also called the electrical conduction system of the heart) [1] transmits the signals generated by the sinoatrial node – the heart 's pacemaker, to cause the heart muscle to contract, and pump blood through the body's circulatory system. The pacemaking signal travels through the right atrium to the ...
The cardiomyocytes make up the bulk (99%) of cells in the atria and ventricles. These contractile cells respond to impulses of action potential from the pacemaker cells and are responsible for the contractions that pump blood through the body. The pacemaker cells make up just (1% of cells) and form the conduction system of the heart.
Cardiac excitation-contraction coupling (Cardiac EC coupling) describes the series of events, from the production of an electrical impulse (action potential) to the contraction of muscles in the heart. [1] This process is of vital importance as it allows for the heart to beat in a controlled manner, without the need for conscious input.
Purkinje fibers take up stain differently from the surrounding muscle cells because of having relatively fewer myofibrils than other cardiac cells. The presence of glycogen around the nucleus causes Purkinje fibers to appear, on a slide, lighter and larger than their neighbors, being arranged along the longitudinal direction (parallel to the ...
Pacemaker potential. In the pacemaking cells of the heart (e.g., the sinoatrial node), the pacemaker potential (also called the pacemaker current) is the slow, positive increase in voltage across the cell 's membrane (the membrane potential) that occurs between the end of one action potential and the beginning of the next action potential.
Autorhythmic cells do not contract, but instead set the pace of contraction for other cardiac muscle cells, which can be modulated by the autonomic nervous system. In contrast, contractile muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) constitute the majority of the heart muscle and are able to contract.