Cardiac pacemaker

This article is about the natural pacemaker in the heart. For the article about the medical device that does the same job, see artificial pacemaker.

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The contractions of the heart are controlled by electrical impulses, these fire at a rate which controls the beat of the heart.

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The cells that create these rhythmical impulses are called pacemaker cells, and they directly control the heart rate. Artificial devices also called pacemakers can be used after damage to the body's intrinsic conduction system to produce these impulses synthetically.

Related Topics:
Cell - Rhythm - Heart rate - Pacemaker

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