Purkinje fibres

Looks like

A fine web of large, pale conducting cells spread under the inner lining of both ventricles.

What it does

Deliver the beat to the ventricle muscle almost at once, so it squeezes from the tip upward in one coordinated wave.

Keeping it well

Scarring after a heart attack disrupts this web and can trigger dangerous fast rhythms; collapse without warning needs CPR and a defibrillator immediately, and survivors are often given an implanted defibrillator.

Related conditions

• 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (DiGeorge)
• Amyloidosis (AL and ATTR)
• Aortic stenosis
• Atrial fibrillation
• Atrial flutter
• Botulism
• Brugada syndrome
• Cardiomyopathy (dilated, restrictive, arrhythmogenic)
• Chagas disease
• Chickenpox (varicella)
• Chronic neuropathic pain
• Chronic pain syndrome
• Congenital heart defects
• Coronary artery disease
• Diphtheria
• Down syndrome (trisomy 21)
• Eating disorders
• Extra heartbeats (ectopics and palpitations)
• Fainting (syncope)
• Fibromyalgia
• Friedreich's ataxia
• Guillain-Barré syndrome
• Heart block & bradycardia
• Heart failure
• Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
• Hypothermia & frostbite
• Kawasaki disease
• Long QT syndrome
• Lyme disease
• Myasthenia gravis
• Myocarditis
• Orthostatic hypotension & POTS
• Panic disorder
• Pericardial effusion & tamponade
• Pericarditis
• Peripheral neuropathy
• Rabies
• Restless legs syndrome
• Shingles (herpes zoster)
• Shock (circulatory failure)
• Sudden cardiac arrest
• Sudden infant death syndrome
• Supraventricular tachycardia
• Takotsubo (stress) cardiomyopathy
• Tetanus
• Tuberous sclerosis complex
• Ventricular tachycardia
• Vitamin B1, C and other deficiencies
• Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome