Cardiac Presssure and AP Flashcards
What is the name of the circle of arteries on the underside of the base of the brain AND what is its physiological function?
- The Circle of Willis
- provides redundancies in arterial blood supply to the brain
- provides consistent perfusion to all regions; protection from ischaemia in cases where one major artery supplying the brain is temporarily blocked or narrows
Name two plasma secretions of the kidney that are central to RAAS
- ACE
- Renin
Name three aspects of the large skeletal muscle circulation that make it stand out.
- can use 80% of cardiac output during exercise
- arterial supply vasodilates in response to sympathetic stimulation
- muscle pump contributes directly to venous return
Name to stand out features of neural circulation
- Circle of Willis
- Auto regulation
Name three aspects of the skin that make it suited for thermo-regulation
- can regulate blood perfusion up to 100-fold
- arterio-venous anastomosis allow thermal exchange without the resistance of capillary beds
- sweat glands turn fluid ultrafiltrate from plasma into a rapid heat loss system
Skin and its response to trauma
What is the triple response of Lewis, that is seen in lighter-skinned toned people?
- Red reaction
- Flare
- Wheal
What four sequential events make up the cardiac cycle?
- Ventricular filling
- Isovolumic ventricular contraction
- Ejection
- Isovolumic ventricular relaxation
List the heart valves, listing the regions they seperate
- Tricuspid Valve: Right Atrium from Right Ventricle
- Pulmonic Valve: semilunar, Right ventricle from Pulmonary Arteries
- Mitral (bicuspid) Valve: Left Atrium from Left Ventricle
- Aortic Valve: semilunar, Left Ventricle from the Aorta
What are the valve sounds and when do they appear during the cardiac cycle?
• S1: First heart sound (lub)
- when Mitral & Tricuspid close, during systole
• S2: Second heart sound (dub)
- when Aortic & pulmonic valves close, during diastole
- diastole is longer than systole
How do the ECG waves align with the ventricular action potentials?
- QRS complex lines up with the depolarization of ventricles
- T wave lines u with repolarisation of ventricle
How does an ECG align with the nodal action potential?
- the P wave lines up with the depolarisation of the SA node
What are the 5 phases involved in the ventricular action potential?
- Depolarization: Na+ gates open in response to a wave of excitation
- Transient outward current: a tiny amount of K+ leaves cell -> small amount of repolarization
- Plateau phase: inflow of Ca2+, balances the outflow of K+
- Rapid repolarization: membrane potential falls as K+ leaves cell
- Return to resting potential
What are the 3 important types of potassium channels involved in cardiac activity?
- what are their primary function?
- Delayed rectifier: repolarizes action potential
- Inward rectifier: maintains voltage near the resting potential, and contributes to late repolarisation of AP
- Ach-activated K+ channel: slows down the heart rate in response to vagal stimulation.
What is tetany, and why does it not occur in cardiac muscle?
- Tetany is a state of maximal contraction in a skeletal muscle cell
- muscles cells are highly stimulated frequently so much so that it is too rapid for recovery and relaxation,
- so the contractions effectively become continuous and stronger than possible with a single twitch
- this is caused by calcium build up in the cytosol
- doesn’t happen in cardiomyocytes because an extended contraction without relaxation would effectively stop the beating of that cell and prevent relaxation
What is the pacemaker potential and how does it come about?
- the upward drift in voltage that occurs between action potentials
- this happens in myocytes of SA node, AV node and conduction system
- it occurs instead of a resting potential: inward rectifier K+ channels do not exist to maintain the resting potential at a specific level
- the slope of the pacemaker potential determines the automatic rate of firing of the cell