BMS 360 Lecture Notes - Cardiac Muscle, Action Potential, Endothelium
Document Summary
Heart is a muscular organ that pumps blood. The walls of the heart are called the myocardium, composed of cardiac muscle cells or cardiomyocytes. The inner surface of the chambers of the heart is lined with endothelial cells. Understand the differences between electrically stable and electrically unstable cells and why this is important. Understand how action potentials are generated in the pacemaker cells of the sinoatrial (sa) node and why this is important for cardiac function. Understand electrical conduction in the heart and why the atrioventricular (av) node is important for cardiac function. Understand how action potentials are generated in cardiac muscle cells, how they differ from sa node action potentials, and why they are important. Understand how the structure of cardiac muscle cells contributes to their function. Understand what the term excitation-contraction coupling means and how heart muscle cells contract. The f stands for funny : f type channels open at hyperpolarized membrane potentials.
