Cardiac Cycle

The average heart rate is about 70 beats per minute. Each heart beat is made up of a sequence
of events called the cardiac cycle. The following are its stages:
1. Atrial systole: At this stage the heart is filled with blood. The cardiac muscle in the atria
contracts with enough force (despite the relatively thin walls of the atria) to push blood from
the atria into the ventricles through the AV valves.
- The semilunar valves in the pulmonary veins and venae cavae prevent blood from
flowing back into them.
2. Ventricular systole: After an about 0.1 second delay, the ventricles contract.
- The walls squeeze the blood until the pressure is so high it pushes blood out of the heart,
pushing the semilunar valves of the aorta and pulmonary artery open.
- The AV valves are pushed shut when the pressure in the ventricles becomes higher than
in the atria.
- This stage lasts about 0.3 seconds.
3. Diastole: The whole heart muscle relaxes and blood flows into the atria.
- The blood which enters the heart is at very low pressure, but the thin was of the atria are
very easily distended, meaning they provide very little resistance.
- Some blood trickles into the atria at this time.
- Ventricular diastole: The ventricles relax and the pressure in them drops.
The semilunar valves in the aorta and pulmonary artery shut as blood fills their cusps.
Control of Heart (electrical)
Although cardiac muscle is myogenic, individual cardiac cells should not be allowed to contract
at their own rhythms because this would cause parts of the heart to contract out of sequence
(fibrillation). To prevent this, the heart has its own coordinating system.
The following are the sequence of events which help regulate the way in which cardiac muscle
contracts:
1. The muscles in the sinoatrial node (SAN) contract, producing a wave of electrical activity
which ripples over the whole of the atrial walls.
- The SAN is found in the right atrium.
- It is also called the pacemaker because it sets the pace at which the cardiac muscles
contract.
- The muscles cells in the SAN have a slightly faster natural rhythm of contraction than the
rest of the heart.
- The SAN automatically contracts and relaxes all the time because it is myogenic.
- The pacemakers rate can be adjusted by nerves transmitting impulses from the brain.
2. The muscle in both atria contracts simultaneously.
3. The excitation wave reaches the atrioventricular node (AVN) which delays the signal.
- The AVN is a patch of conductive fibres situated in the septum.
- There is a band of fibres between the atria and ventricles which does not conduct the
excitation wave. The AVN is the only way for this wave to travel to the ventricles.
- It delays the excitation wave for about 0.1 seconds, to make sure that the atria contract
properly before the ventricles do.
4. The excitation wave moves down through the septum of the heart along the part of the
bundle of His called Purkyne tissue.
- After the excitation reaches the base of the ventricles, it sweeps upwards through the
ventricle walls, cause the ventricles to contract.
5. The ventricles relax. Then, the SAN contracts again and the cycle repeats.
Problems with the control of the heart:
- Fibrillation: The heart wall simply flutters rather than contracting and relaxing as a whole.
If the contractions of the cardiac muscles go wrong, the excitation wave becomes chaotic:
passing though the ventricular muscle in all directions, feeding back on itself, restimulating
areas it has just left. Small sections of cardiac muscle will contract while others relax.
Fibrillation is almost always fatal unless created instantly.
It may start because of electric shock of damage to large areas of muscle in the heart walls.

 Electrocardiogram (ECG): A graph of the voltage against time, obtained from electrodes placed
one the skin opposite to the heart, which detect the waves of excitation flowing through heart
muscle.
- The P wave represents the wave of excitation sweeping across the atrial walls.
- The QRS complex represent the wave of excitation in the ventricle walls.
- The T wave represents the recovery or relaxation of the ventricle walls.