Heart arrhythmia beat. Any part of the heart that initiates an impulse without waiting for the sinoatrial node is called an ectopic focus and is, by definition, a pathological phenomenon. This may cause a single premature beat now and then, or, if the ectopic focus fires more often than the sinoatrial node, it can produce a sustained abnormal rhythm. Rhythms produced by an ectopic focus in the atria, or by the atrioventricular node, are the least dangerous dysrhythmias; but they can still produce a decrease in the heart's pumping efficiency, because the signal reaches the various parts of the heart muscle with
Node (circuits) Node (circuits) In electrical engineering, a node is any point on a circuit where the terminals of two or more circuit elements meet. In circuit diagrams, connections are ideal wires with zero resistance, so a node may consist of the entire section of wire between elements, not just a single point. According to Ohm's law, "V = IR", the voltage across any two points of a node with negligible resistance is showing that the voltage at every point of a node is the same. However, there are some notable exceptions where the voltage difference is large enough to become significant: