The Cardiac Muscle Flashcards
Types of muscles
Smooth
Skeletal
Cardiac
The cardiac muscle combines properties all both smooth and skeletal muscles. True or false?
True
What is the difference in the contraction between the skeletal and cardiac muscle?
The duration of construction in cardiac muscle is longer than skeletal muscle
Features of cardiac myocytes
Short Branched Striated Connected by gap junctions Acts as a single unit (syncitium)
What is a striated muscle tissue?
It features repeating functional units called sacromeres
Similarities between skeletal and cardiac muscle
Striated cells
Similarities between cardiac myocytes and smooth muscle cells
The presence of gap junctions
Which is longer - cardiac or skeletal muscle fibers?
Skeletal. Cardiac muscle cells are considerably shorter than skeletal muscle fibers, and have several branching processes.
Adjacent cells are joined end to end at structures called…
Intercalated disks
What are desmosomes?
Structures that hold the cells together and to which the myofibrils are attached.
Functions of intercalated disks
They allow the free movement of nutrients and ions between myocytes
When one parts of the cardiac muscle is stimulated…
…The whole heart muscle will be stimulated because of cardiac myocytes acting as a single unit
The conducting system of the hearts does not function in contraction. True or false?
True
The conduction system of the heart is in contact with cardiac myocytes via…
Gap junctions
Functions of the conducting system of the hearts
- Initiates heart beats
- Spreads impulses rapidly throughout the heart
