A collection of specialized cardiac cells located in the right atrium between the coronary sinus and the tricuspid valve's septal cusp which form a portion of the heart's electrical conduction system. In conducting the electrical impulse from the atria to the ventricles, the AV node introduces a delay that allows the atrial contraction to occur first, thus augmenting the filling of the relaxed ventricles. It also acts as a physiologic gate to prevent the ventricles from contracting too rapidly in response to pathologic atrial tachyarrhythmias.
See Atrioventricular Node.
A relay station between the atria and ventricles that causes a delay in the electrical impulse to permit the atria to finish contracting (emptying) before ventricular contraction
Controls the electrical signal as it goes from the atria to the ventricles.
A small mass of tissue that forms a conductive path between the Atrial myocardia and the Penetrating Bundle. Normally, the AV Node provides the delay between the activation of the Atria and the Ventricles.
An electrical relay station between the atria (the upper) and the ventricles (the lower chambers of the heart). Electrical signals from the atria must pass through the AV node to reach the ventricles. See the entire definition of AV node
Specialized node of tissue in the heart that serves as an electrical connection, or relay, between the atria (top chambers) and ventricles (bottom chambers) of the heart. It plays a key role in controlling heart rate, by working like a gate-keeper to the ventricles, determining how many impulses are carried through.
located in the lower portion of the right atrium, the AV Node is responsible for slowing the electrical signal propagation prior to its transit to the Bundles of His. This corresponds to the pause between contraction of the Atria and the Ventricles.