From my understanding much electrical activity in the body (e.g. neurons firing, “heart” beating, etc.) is basically brought about by previous electrical activity but how does the initial electrical activity start? Why can’t this process be repeated for patients in asystole? I feel like I understand so little of this to where I’m not even sure what I should be Googling so any help would be appreciated.
In: Biology
You are right that most neurons are triggered by other neurons around it. But these electrical signals usually originates from a neuron that is triggered by chemical stimulus. For example a taste receptor is a neuron that gets triggered by a chemical in the food you eat. The heart have neurons that gets triggered by the breakdown of certain chemicals over time creating a rhythmic signal. This happens all on its own without any external inputs required. So as soon as these cells are grown and working the heart start beating on its own.
When people are in asystole this does not work for any number of reasons. The way you cure this is by curing the underlying reason and the heart will start beating on its own. It is a TV trope that we use defibrilators on these patients. Defibrillators are used on patients who are fibrillating not those in asystole. Where you might see defibrillators used in these cases is when someone goes from being in asystole to fibrillating. This could be because multiple neurons start at the same time creating different rhythms, so you need to shock them in order to make them trigger at the same time again.
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