Beating & The Hearts Electric System

The beating of your heart is series of events inside and around your heart, it is basically a cycle in which your hearts chambers relax, fill and contract to pump blood, each beat of your heart is set in motion by an electrical signal from the SA node (to be explained later) with is referred to as “Your heart’s natural pacemaker”. On a side note your pulse/heart rate is the number of signals the SA node produces a minute.

In the hearts electrical system the electrical impulses that travel down a specific cycle thought your heart are

1. SA node (sinoatrial node): A small bundle of specialized cells located in the right atrium. They cause the electrical activity that then spreads through the walls of the atria, which in turn causes them to contract, forcing blood into the ventricles.

2. AV node (atrioventricular node): A cluster of cells in the center of the heart between the atria and ventricles, the AV node slows the electrical signal before it enters the ventricles. Causing a that delay gives the atria time to contract before the ventricles do.

3. His-Purkinje Network: A pathway of fibers that sends the electrical impulse to the muscular walls of the ventricles and causes them to contract. This forces blood out of the heart to the lungs and body.

4. The cycle begins again.

Reference

National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute. (2011). Your Heart's Electrical System. [Web portal]. Retrieved from https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/hhw/electrical