Cardiac

Conduction
System
(1) Conduction System of Heart
• Conduction System = Heart Beat & Pumping

• Cardiac Contractions = Unconscious

– Autonomic Nervous System  decrease or
increase heart rate depending on circumstance
(2) Depolarization of the Heart
• Generate Action Potential & Depolarization:
– Atria  Ventricles

• Depolarization Path:
1. SA Node  AV Node
2. Atria Contract
3. (Delay)  AV Bundle
4. Ventricles Contract
(Blood ejected out of arteries, leaving heart)
 http://highered.mcgraw-
hill.com/sites/0072495855/student_view0/chapter22/ani
mation__conducting_system_of_the_heart.html
 (3) Nodes & Bundles
• Sinoatrial Node (SA Node)
– Right atrium
– Starts each heart beat & sets rate
– “Pacemaker”

• Atrioventricular Node (AV Node) = Left

atrium

• AV Bundle =
– Bundle Branches (along septum)
– Purkinje Fibers (along entire muscular wall of heart)
 (4) Cardiac Cycle
• Diastole = Relax
– Blood passively filling atria

• Systole = Contract
– Ventricles contract
– Blood Ejected out of heart
 (5) Diastole
1. Ventricles relax

2. Semilunar valves closed

3. Ventricular Presure < Atrial Pressure

– AV valves open
– Ventricles fill with blood

4. Atria contract and force blood remaining in

chambers into ventricles
 (6) Systole
1. Pressure increases in ventricles
- Filled with blood

2. AV valves close

3. Pressure in ventricles > Arteries leaving heart

- Semilunar valves open
- Blood rushes out of ventricles

4. Atria are relaxed and begin to fill back up

 (7) Heart Beat
• You hear something like “lub” “dup”
– “lub” = closing of AV valves
• During ventricular systole
– “dup” = closing of semilunar valves
• During early diastole

• You should NOT hear blood flow

– You’ll hear it if flow is interrupted by blockage

http://www.csulb.edu/org/college/bme/respiratory
_sounds/heart.wav
 (8) Cardiac Output
• Cardiac Output
– Amount of blood pumped out by each ventricle / 1
minute
– Cardiac Output = Heart Rate x Stroke Volume
– CO = (HR)(SV)

• Stroke Volume
– Volume of blood pumped out by ventricle
– Increase of SV = Increase of ventricular force +
contraction

• Average Stroke Volume = 0.2L

• Average Cardiac Output = 15L/min
 (9) Starling’s Law
• Starling’s Law of the Heart:
– Degree of cardiac muscle extension before
contraction
– Increase Extension = Stronger Contraction
– Degree of Extension  result of percent filling of
ventricles