Glossary of Terms

Artificial Pacemaker
An artificial pacemaker is a device that uses electrical impulses to regulate the beating of the heart or to reproduce the rhythm of the heart beat. Its function is to treat bradycardia (heart rate that is too slow). It does this by stimulating the heart when it detects that the heart's natural rhythm is too slow, or when the electrical impulses going to the ventricles (lower chambers of the heart) are being blocked, and the pauses beween heartbeats are too long. Not to be confused with the heart's natural pacemaker (SA Node), an artificial pacemaker can either be internal (implanted) or external.

Related term: SA Node, Natural Pacemaker