PHYSIOLOGY WORKSHEET

CHAPTER FIVE: CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM

I. Answer the following questions:

1. What is the difference between atrioventricular valves and semilunar valves? The
atrioventricular valves are between the atrium and the ventricule but the semilunar
valves are between the ventriculea and the arteries.
2. What is Prolapse? Prolapse is when the chordae fail, and the valve is puched back
into the atrium during the ventricular contraction.
3. What are the two types of cells in the heart? What is the difference between them?
The two types of cells in the heart are 1)the contractile cells 2) the mayocardial
autorythmic cells. The autorythmic cells are smaller and have few contractile fiber
than the contractile cells.
4. What is the importance of the spiral arrangement of ventricular muscle? The
spiral arrangemnet ofthe ventricular muscles allows ventricular contraction to
squeeze the blood upword from the heart.
5. Make a comparison between excitation-contraction coupling in skeletal muscle
and that in cardiac muscle. In the skeletal muscles the stimilus comes from the
somatic motor neuron who causes an action potential in the muscles fiber, this
action potential leads to a contraction. Succesive stimulation give maximum
contraction (tetanus). In the cardiac muscles the stimulus takes time, the
contraction startes when the action potential is still working and they end at the
same time ( no tetanus because ther is no seccesive stimulations un the cardiac
muscles), the refractory period and the contraction end simultaneously.
6. What is the importance of the plateau phase of the action potential of contractile
cardiac cells? the plateau phase is a result of two events 1) decreasing in K+
permeability, 2) increasing in Ca2+ permeability. The action potential flattens out
into a plateau and lenghens the tolal duration of a myocardial action petential.
7. What causes the pacemaker potential in autorythmic cardiac cells? The pacemaker
petential is due to the special properties of the ion channels If in the sacrolemma.
In these cells, hyperpolarization at the end od an action potential both closes K+
channels and opens slow Na+ channels.
8. Write a paragraph in your own words describing the electrical conduction in the
heart starting from the SA node. The depolarization starts in the sinoatrial nodes
which wave and spreade rapidly through the atrioventricular node and from the
AV nodenode. The depolarization moves into the ventricules then an electrical
signalsignals move very rapidly down the AV bundle in the ventricular septum
when the AV bundle fiber divide into left and right braches, the bundles braches
continue downword into the apex of the heart when they divide into smaller
fibers that spread outward in contractile cells.
 PHYSIOLOGY WORKSHEET
CHAPTER FIVE: CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM

9. What are the P, QRS, T waves in an ECG? The T wave results from the
movement of the depolarization wave from the SA node through the atria. The
QRS complex results from ventricular depolarization and precedes ventricular
contraction. The T wave is caused by the repolarization of the ventricule. ECG is
a graphic record od the heart activity.
10. How would an increase in stroke volume affect the cardiac output?
cardiac output = heart rate × stoke volume
So An increasing in the stoke volume lead to the increasing of the cardiac output.