Sinoatrial block Sinoatrial block A sinoatrial block is a disorder in the normal rhythm of the heart, known as a heart block, that is initiated in the sinoatrial node. The initial action impulse in a heart is usually formed in the sinoatrial node (SA node) and carried through the atria, down the internodal atrial pathways to the atrioventricular node (AV) node. In normal conduction, the impulse would travel across the bundle of His (AV bundle), down the bundle branches, and into the Purkinje fibers. This would depolarize the ventricles and cause them to contract. In an SA block, the electrical impulse is
Node (physics) Node (physics) A node is a point along a standing wave where the wave has minimum amplitude. For instance, in a vibrating guitar string, the ends of the string are nodes. By changing the position of the end node through frets, the guitarist changes the effective length of the vibrating string and thereby the note played. The opposite of a node is an anti-node, a point where the amplitude of the standing wave is a maximum. These occur midway between the nodes. Standing waves result when two sinusoidal wave trains of the same frequency are moving in opposite directions in