Chapter 36 Flashcards
Automaticity, excitability, conductivity, and contractility enable the conduction system to perform what?
Initiate an electrical impulse, transmit it through the cardiac tissue and stimulate muscle contraction.
What are the four properties of cardiac cells?
Automaticity, excitability, conductivity, and contractility
Automaticity
Ability to initiate an impulse spontaneously and continuously.
Electrocardiogram
A graphic tracing of the electrical impulses produced in the heart.
Changes in a 12-lead ECG may occur with damage such as?
Ischemia or infarction, electrolyte imbalance, dysrhythmias, enlarged cardiac chambers, or drug toxicity.
The process of a normal cardiac impulse
Begins in the upper right atrium at the SA node, spreads via intra-atrial pathways and intermodal pathways causing atrial contraction, the impulse then travels to the AV node, through the bundle of His, down the left and right bundle branches, and ends in the Purkinje fibers transmitting the impulse to the ventricles.
Excitability
Ability to be electrically stimulated
Conductivity
Ability to transmit an impulse along a membrane in an orderly manner
Contractility
Ability to respond mechanically to an impulse
Autonomic Nervous System Roles of the Heart
Rate of impulse formation, speed of conduction, and the strength of cardiac contraction.
Components of the ANS affecting the heart
Vagus nerve fibers of the PNS and nerve fibers of the SNS
Most common ECG leads used for patient monitoring
ECG Leads II, V1and MCL 1
Telemetry Monitoring observes patient’s
Heart rate and rhythm which provides a rapid diagnosis of dysrhythmias, ischemia and infarction.
P wave
Represents time for the passage of the electrical impulse through the atrium causing atrial depolarization (contraction).
Normal duration: 0.6-0.12 sec
P-R interval
Represents time taken for impulse to spread through the atria, AV node and bundle of His, bundle branches, and Purkinje fibers, to a point preceding ventricular contraction.
Normal duration: 0.12-0.20 sec
QRS interval
Represents time taken for depolarization (contraction) of both ventricles (systole).
Normal duration: <0.12 sec
ST segment
Represents the time between ventricular depolarization and repolarization (diastole).
Normal duration: 0.12 sec
T wave
Represents time for ventricular depolarization.
Normal duration: 0.16 sec
QT interval
Represents time taken for entire electrical depolarization and repolarization of the ventricles.
Source of possible variation in P wave
Disturbance in conduction within atria.
Source of possible variation in P-R interval
Disturbance in conduction usually in AV node, bundle of His, or bundle branches, but can be in atria.
Source of possible variation in QRS interval
Disturbance in conduction in bundle branches or in ventricles.
Source of possible variation in ST segment
Disturbances usually caused by ischemia, injury or infarction.