Can someone help me understand what cardiac refractory period is?!
Question: im having the hardest time trying to understand it... i know it has to do with action potentials but i cant find it in my book and i need it for my test.. please help
Answers: im having the hardest time trying to understand it... i know it has to do with action potentials but i cant find it in my book and i need it for my test.. please help
So, as i'm sure you know, ions flow into and out of cardiac cells which causes the contraction and relaxation of the chambers of the heart to pump blood out to the body. This flow translates into a change in the voltage of the cell (what you were talking about with the action potentials). After that action potential has fired, there is a period in which no matter HOW MUCH stimuli is applied to it the nerve will never fire. It needs time to recover. That is the refractory period. It lasts for about 100 milliseconds - it's important to keep that in mind with defibrillation and other electrical stimulation of the heart muscle.
hope this answers your question
check out this
http://www.answers.com/topic/refractory-...