Cardiac muscle
middle layer of the heart wall, which consists of cardiac muscle / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A cardiac muscle (heart muscle) is one of the three main types of muscle in vertebrates. It is involuntary: a person cannot control it consciously. Also, it is a striped muscle in the walls of the heart. It makes up the tissue called the myocardium.
Cardiac muscle | |
---|---|
Details | |
Part of | Myocardium of the heart |
Identifiers | |
Latin | Textus muscularis striatus cardiacus |
MeSH | D009206 |
TA | A12.1.06.001 |
FMA | 9462 |
Anatomical terminology |
The other types of muscle are the skeletal and smooth muscle. The cells that make up cardiac muscle have one (74%) or two (24.5%) nuclei.[1][2] The myocardium forms a thick middle layer between the outer epicardium layer and the inner endocardium layer.
Coordinated contractions of cardiac muscle cells in the heart force blood out of the atria and ventricles to the blood vessels of the left/body/systemic and right/lungs/pulmonary circulatory systems. This mechanism illustrates systole (contraction) of the heart.
Cardiac muscle cells, unlike most other tissues in the body, rely on the coronary arteries to deliver oxygen and nutrients and remove waste products directly. There is no time for them to diffuse.