Impact of Calcium Store Overload and Electrical Dynamics on Cardiac Myocytes
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2015
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Abstract
The heart's main function of pumping blood to the body is a complicated process separated into two major steps. Initially, the heart is relaxed and blood flows freely into the ventricles and atria from the veins, then the atria contracts and pumps more blood to the ventricles. The atria relaxes and the inlet valves between these and the ventricles close, producing the initial thump of the heartbeat, as pressure builds while the ventricles contract. This pressure also forces the outlet valves open, allowing blood to
ow into the arteries and aorta. As the ventricles relax, the outlet valves then close, producing the second thump of the heartbeat.
Once the atria and ventricles are relaxed, the inlet valves reopen, allowing the compartments to ll with blood again as the process repeats. If the heart's contractile abilities are impaired in any way, the rest of the body cannot perform properly. Despite advances in cardiology research, cardiac arrhythmia remains an influential cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Recent advances involve the application of devices, such as pacemakers or de brillators, and the outlook of antiarrhythmic drug therapy up to this point is grim, so it is necessary to understand how some pathological conditions within cardiac myocytes can lead to dysfunction of these cells. Calcium mishandling can play a major role in disruption of overall cardiac function by preventing the ability of the heart muscles to relax between heartbeats and thus impair their pumping blood to the body