Flow Of Electricity Through The Heart
First i think to learn the electrical system of the heart you have to be able to visualize it.
Flow of electricity through the heart. The atria are then activated. In a healthy heart the signal travels very quickly through the heart allowing the chambers to contract in a smooth orderly fashion. The heart is a complex organ using four chambers four valves and multiple blood vessels to provide blood to the body blood flow itself is equally complex involving a cyclic series of steps that move blood trough the heart and to the lungs to be oxygenated deliver it throughout the body then bring blood back to the heart to re start the process. The 2 upper chambers of the heart atria are stimulated first and.
Yet while the science behind the flow of electricity is very complex the basics of electrical flow or current are easy to understand if you learn some key terms and functions. The heart s electrical system is critical to the function of the heart the electrical system determines the heart rate how fast the heart is beating and also coordinates and organizes the beating of the heart muscles so that the heart works efficiently with each heartbeat. This image shows the four chambers of the heart and the direction that blood flows through the heart. Electrical signals arising in the sa node located in the right atrium stimulate the atria to contract then the signals travel to the atrioventricular node av node which is located in the interatrial septum after a delay the electrical signal diverges and is conducted through the left and right bundle of his to the respective purkinje fibers for each side of the heart as well as to the.
It also helps to compare the flow of electricity through wires with the flow of. The electrical system of the heart is just as easy to learn as the blood flow of the heart once you know the important areas to study. The sa node called the pacemaker of the heart sends out an electrical impulse. When electricity flows near or through the heart for only a short period of time it can cause fibrillation of the heart in which the heart only flutters instead of beats.
The electrical stimulus travels down through the conduction pathways and causes the heart s ventricles to contract and pump out blood. Then immediately before depolarization has completed its course through the ventricles the average direction of current flow reverses for about 0 01 second flowing from the ventricular apex toward the base because the last part of the heart to become depolarized is the outer walls of the ventricles near the base of the heart. Then oxygen rich blood shown in red is pumped out to the rest of the body with the help of the heart valves. Here is a drawing on how to the electrical system is set up in the heart.
Oxygen poor blood shown in blue purple flows into the heart and is pumped out to the lungs. The specifies. The sinus node generates an electrical stimulus regularly 60 to 100 times per minute under normal conditions.