Definition of Cardiac muscle

1. Noun. The muscle tissue of the heart; adapted to continued rhythmic contraction.


Medical Definition of Cardiac muscle

1. Tissue specialised for contraction. See twitch muscle, catch muscle: Cardiac muscle (heart muscle) is a striated but involuntary muscle responsible for the pumping activity of the vertebrate heart. The individual muscle cells are joined through a junctional complex known as the intercalated disc and are not fused together into multinucleate structures as they are in skeletal muscle. Skeletal muscle is a rather non-specific term usually applied to the striated muscle of vertebrates that is under voluntary control. The muscle fibres are syncytial and contain myofibrils, tandem arrays of sarcomeres. Smooth muscle is muscle tissue in vertebrates made up from long tapering cells that may be anything from 20-500m long. Smooth muscle is generally involuntary and differs from striated muscle in the much higher actin/myosin ratio, the absence of conspicuous sarcomeres and the ability to contract to a much smaller fraction of its resting length. Smooth muscle cells are found particularly in blood vessel walls, surrounding the intestine (especially the gizzard in birds) and in the uterus. The contractile system and its control resemble those of motile tissue cells (for example fibroblasts, leucocytes) and antibodies against smooth muscle myosin will cross react with myosin from tissue cells, whereas antibodies against skeletal muscle myosin will not. See: dense bodies. This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology (11 Mar 2008)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Cardiac Muscle

cardiac index
cardiac infarction
cardiac insufficiency
cardiac insufficiency
cardiac jelly
cardiac liver
cardiac lung
cardiac lymphatic ring
cardiac mapping
cardiac massage
cardiac massage
cardiac monitor
cardiac murmur
cardiac murmur
cardiac muscle (current term)
cardiac muscle (current term)
cardiac muscle tissue
cardiac muscle wrap
cardiac neurosis
cardiac notch
cardiac notch of left lung
cardiac oedema
cardiac opening
cardiac orifice
cardiac output
cardiac output
cardiac pacemaker
cardiac pacemaker
cardiac part of stomach
cardiac plexus

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