Anaesthesia & intensive care medicine
Volume 10, Issue 8 , Pages 377-380, August 2009

Initiation and regulation of the heartbeat

Emrys Kirkman PhD is a Principal Scientist at Dstl, Porton Down, UK. He has a PhD from Manchester University and has worked at the MRC Trauma Group, Manchester. He also holds honorary Senior Lectureships at the University of Durham in the Academic Division of James Cook University Hospital, Cleveland. Conflicts of interest: none declared

Abstract 

The heart has all the components necessary to initiate and maintain a regular heartbeat, without the need for external influence. Thus, a transplanted heart without nervous connection, or a heart completely removed from the body, if adequately perfused with oxygen, beats rhythmically. In the normal intact body, the function of the nervous and humoral regulation is to modulate the activity of the heart, though some aspects of modulation are intrinsic properties of cardiac muscle.

Keywords: action potential, pacemaker cells, sinoatrial node

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PII: S1472-0299(09)00104-0

doi:10.1016/j.mpaic.2009.04.013

Anaesthesia & intensive care medicine
Volume 10, Issue 8 , Pages 377-380, August 2009

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