As a medical professional with expertise in cardiology, I can explain that the
P wave in an electrocardiogram (EKG) is a crucial part of the heart's electrical activity that is recorded on the EKG. The
P wave represents the
atrial depolarization, which is the initial electrical signal that causes the atria (the upper chambers of the heart) to contract and push blood into the ventricles (the lower chambers). In a normal EKG, the
P wave precedes the QRS complex, which represents the ventricular depolarization. The
P wave typically appears as a small bump upwards from the baseline, and its amplitude is normally within the range of 0.05 to 0.25 millivolts (mV), which can be visualized as 0.5 to 2.5 small boxes on the EKG graph.
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