Anatomy and Function of the Electrical System

The guts’s electrical system

Within the easiest of phrases, the center is a pump made up of muscle tissue. The guts’s pumping motion is managed by {an electrical} conduction system that coordinates the contraction of the center chambers.

How does the center beat?

{An electrical} stimulus is generated in a particular a part of the center muscle referred to as the sinus node. It is also referred to as the sinoatrial node (SA node). The sinus node is a small mass of particular tissue in the correct higher chamber of the center (proper atrium). In an grownup, the sinus node sends out a daily electrical pulse 60 to 100 occasions per minute. This electrical pulse travels down via the conduction pathways. It causes the center’s decrease chambers (ventricles) to contract and pump out blood. The fitting and left atria are stimulated first. They contract to push blood from the atria into the ventricles. The ventricles then contract to push blood out into the blood vessels of the physique. 

The unique electrical impulse travels from the sinus node throughout the cells of your coronary heart’s proper and left atria. The sign travels to the AV node (atrioventricular node). This node is between the atria and the ventricles. Within the AV node, the impulses are slowed down for a really quick time. This permits the atria to contract a fraction of a second earlier than the ventricles. The blood from the atria empties into the ventricles earlier than the ventricles contract. After passing via the AV node, {the electrical} present then goes down the conduction pathway. It goes via a pathway referred to as the bundle of His, and into the ventricles. The bundle of His divides into proper and left pathways (bundle branches) to present electrical stimulation to the proper and left ventricles.

Usually at relaxation, the center contracts about 60 to 100 occasions a minute relying in your age. On the whole, your coronary heart fee slows as you age. 

What can go mistaken with the center’s electrical system?

Underneath some irregular situations, sure coronary heart tissue is able to beginning a heartbeat, or changing into the “pacemaker,” similar to the sinus node. An irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) could happen when:

• The guts’s pure pacemaker (the sinus node) turns into diseased and slows down

• The traditional conduction pathway is interrupted

• One other a part of the center takes over as pacemaker. This causes a quicker or slower heartbeat.

Signs of an arrhythmia can embody a sense that your coronary heart is fluttering (coronary heart palpitations), shortness of breath, dizziness, or fainting.

You might want an ECG (electrocardiogram) to evaluate the rhythm of the center. This painless take a look at data {the electrical} exercise of your coronary heart with a number of small stickers hooked up to your chest. If {the electrical} rhythm is irregular, you could have to be prescribed medication. Or you could want a process to additional examine the trigger or appropriate the rhythm.