In cardiology a ventricular escape beat is a self-generated electrical discharge initiated by, and causing contraction of, the ventricles of the heart; normally the heart rhythm is begun in the atria of the heart and is subsequently transmitted to the ventricles. The ventricular escape beat follows a long pause in ventricular rhythm and acts to prevent cardiac arrest. It indicates a failure of the electrical conduction system of the heart to stimulate the ventricles (which would lead to the absence of heartbeats, unless ventricular escape beats occur).
Famous quotes containing the words escape and/or beat:
“When I write down my thoughts, they do not escape me. This action makes me remember my strength which I forget at all times. I educate myself proportionately to my captured thought. I aim only to distinguish the contradiction between my mind and nothingness.”
—Isidore Ducasse, Comte de Lautréamont (1846–1870)
“And at dawn, the drums still beat on the sleepless plain like an unstoppable heart.”
—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)