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Gap junctions connect the cytoplasms of neighboring cells electrically allowing cardiac action potentials to spread between cardiac cells by permitting the passage of ions between cells, producing depolarization of the heart muscle. [3] [2] All of these junctions work together as a single unit called the area composita. [2]
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.
[1] [2] The fluid in this space is called interstitial fluid, comprises water and solutes, and drains into the lymph system. [2] The interstitial compartment is composed of connective and supporting tissues within the body – called the extracellular matrix – that are situated outside the blood and lymphatic vessels and the parenchyma of organs.
Valve interstitial cells (VIC), cardiac valve interstitial cells, or also known as valvular interstitial cells (VICs), are the most prevalent cells in the heart valve leaflets, which are a type of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and are responsible for maintaining the extracellular matrix that provides the mechanical properties of the heart valve.
The basal or basic electrical rhythm (BER) or electrical control activity (ECA) is the spontaneous depolarization and repolarization of pacemaker cells known as interstitial cells of Cajal (ICCs) in the smooth muscle of the stomach, small intestine, and large intestine.
Cardiac arrhythmias can cause heart block, in which the contractions lose their rhythm. In humans, and sometimes in other animals, a mechanical device called an artificial pacemaker (or simply "pacemaker") may be used after damage to the body's intrinsic conduction system to produce these impulses synthetically.
Bachmann's bundle receives its blood supply from the sinoatrial nodal artery (right, left or both). [4]Besides Bachmann's bundle, the other three conduction tracts that constitute the atrial conduction system are known as the anterior, middle, and posterior tracts, which run from the sinoatrial node to the atrioventricular node, converging in the region near the coronary sinus.
In a healthy heart, the SA node continuously produces action potentials, setting the rhythm of the heart (sinus rhythm), and so is known as the heart's natural pacemaker. The rate of action potentials produced (and therefore the heart rate ) is influenced by the nerves that supply it.