Control of the Cardiac Cycle

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Control of the cardiac cycle (myogenic) This happens in three stages… Atrial stage – The SAN contracts and transmits electrical impulses throughout the atria, they both contract, pumping the blood into the ventricles. The ventricles are electrically insulated from the atria this is to stop them from contracting at the same time. The blood is stopped from flowing back by the valves in the veins. Ventricular systole- Via the AVN, the bundle of his and the purkinje fibres the electrical impulse passes to the ventricles. Purkinje fibres are specialised fibres that do not contract but pass the electrical impulses to the base of the ventricles, with a short important delay of 0.1seconds. The ventricle contract shortly after the atria, from the bottom up, this squeezes the blood upwards into the arteries. The blood can’t enter the atria because of the atrioventricular valves which are forced shut. Diastole- The atria and the ventricles relax, while the atria fill with blood. Then the semilunar valves in the arteries close as the arterial blood pushes against them. The cardiac cycle explained *A wave of electrical activity spreads out from the SAN across both atria this causes them to contract. *Prevention of the waves crossing to the ventricles is due to the layer of non-conductive (atrioventricular septum). *The wave of electrical activity is allowed to pass through a second group of cells called the AVN, which lies between the atria. *After a short delay the AVN conveys a wave of electrical activity between the ventricles along a series of specialised muscle fibres called the bundle of his. *The bundle of his conducts the wave through the atrioventricular septum. The bundles then branches into smaller fibres in the base of the ventricles. *From these fibres a wave of electrical activity is released causing the ventricles to contract quickly at the same time,

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