BIOC34H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Qrs Complex, Depolarization, Bradycardia
Document Summary
Lecture 2: the electrocardiogram (ecg: uses of the electrocardiogram. The electrocardiogram produces the well-know trace seen on the screen of a heart monitor. There are several important components to the trace produced by an ecg recording: there are generally three deflections above baseline, and there are also segments between deflections - and all of these tell us about heart function. One of the things we can look at with an ecg is the electrical axis of the heart, which we will talk about more in the next lecture. The ecg can also be used to measure heart rate, including analysing either bradychardia (a slow heart beat) or tachycardia (an elevated one). We will look also at arrhythmias, and we will see how the heart has a normal rhythm that can be disrupted. This disruption can be either superventricular (above the ventricles) or ventricular - it is the ventricular arrhythmias that are particularly dangerous to the health of the heart.
