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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.
Image showing the cardiac pacemaker or SA node, the primary pacemaker within the electrical conduction system of the heart The cardiac pacemaker is the heart 's natural rhythm generator. It employs pacemaker cells that produce electrical impulses, known as cardiac action potentials , which control the rate of contraction of the cardiac muscle ...
Purkinje fibers also have the ability of firing at a rate of 20–40 beats per minute if upstream conduction or pacemaking ability is compromised. [9] In contrast, the SA node in normal state can fire at 60-100 beats per minute. [9] In short, they generate action potentials, but at a slower rate than the sinoatrial node. [9]
The AV node's normal intrinsic firing rate without stimulation (such as that from the SA node) is 40–60 times/minute. [13] This property is important because loss of the conduction system before the AV node should still result in pacing of the ventricles by the slower pacemaking ability of the AV node.
The bundle of His (BH) [1]: 58 or His bundle (HB) [1]: 232 (/ h ɪ s / "hiss" [2]) is a collection of heart muscle cells specialized for electrical conduction.As part of the electrical conduction system of the heart, it transmits the electrical impulses from the atrioventricular node (located between the atria and the ventricles) to the point of the apex of the fascicular branches via the ...
In the heart's conduction system electrical activity that originates from the sinoatrial node (SAN) is propagated via the His-Purkinje network, the fastest conduction pathway within the heart. The electrical signal travels from the sinoatrial node, which stimulates the atria to contract, to the atrioventricular node (AVN) , which slows down ...
The bundle branches were separately described by Retzer and Braeunig as early as 1904, but their physiological function remained unclear and their role in the electrical conduction system of the heart remained unknown until Sunao Tawara published his monograph on Das Reizleitungssystem des Säugetierherzens (English: The Conduction System of the Mammalian Heart) in 1906. [4]
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.