For the AQA Medical physics Option you have to know:

Basic structure of the heart

The heart as a double pump with identified valves.

Electrical signals and their detection; action potentials

The biological generation and conduction of electrical signals; action potential of a nerve cell; methods of detection of electrical signals at the skin surface. The response of the heart to the action potential originating at the sino-atrial node; action potential of heart muscle.

Simple ECG machines and the normal ECG waveform

Principles of operation for obtaining the ECG waveform; explanation of the characteristic shape of a normal ECG waveform.

Linked pages:

Action potential

Biopotentials

The ECG - electrocardiograph

Heart - structure

Heart - action potential

Neurons - Nerve cells

The PQRST trace

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