Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Electrocardiography is the process of producing an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG [a]), a recording of the heart's electrical activity through repeated cardiac cycles. [4] It is an electrogram of the heart which is a graph of voltage versus time of the electrical activity of the heart [5] using electrodes placed on the skin.
The conduction system consists of specialized heart muscle cells, situated within the myocardium. [3] There is a skeleton of fibrous tissue that surrounds the conduction system which can be seen on an ECG. Dysfunction of the conduction system can cause irregular heart rhythms including rhythms that are too fast or too slow.
Diagram showing how the polarity of the QRS complex in leads I, II, and III can be used to estimate the heart's electrical axis in the frontal plane. The QRS complex is the combination of three of the graphical deflections seen on a typical electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG). It is usually the central and most visually obvious part of the tracing.
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.
Drawing of the ECG, with labels of intervals. Cardiac electrophysiology is a branch of cardiology and basic science focusing on the electrical activities of the heart.The term is usually used in clinical context, to describe studies of such phenomena by invasive (intracardiac) catheter recording of spontaneous activity as well as of cardiac responses to programmed electrical stimulation ...
Isolated heart conduction system showing atrioventricular node. The AV node receives two inputs from the right atrium: posteriorly, via the crista terminalis, and anteriorly, via the interatrial septum. [8] Contraction of heart muscle cells requires depolarization and repolarization of their cell membranes. Movement of ions across cell ...
In a healthy heart all activities and rests during each individual cardiac cycle, or heartbeat, are initiated and orchestrated by signals of the heart's electrical conduction system, which is the "wiring" of the heart that carries electrical impulses throughout the body of cardiomyocytes, the specialized muscle cells of the heart.
This rate can be altered, however, by nerves that work to either increase heart rate (sympathetic nerves) or decrease it (parasympathetic nerves), as the body's oxygen demands change. Ultimately, muscle contraction revolves around a charged atom (ion) , calcium (Ca 2+ ) , [ 3 ] which is responsible for converting the electrical energy of the ...