Tags: Disease.
Ectopic beat (or cardiac ectopy) is a disturbance of the cardiac rhythm frequently related to the electrical conduction system of the heart in which beats arise from fiber or group of fibers outside the region in the heart muscle ordinarily responsible for impulse formation (i.e. the sinoatrial node). Depending upon the origins of the ectopic beat within the myocardium an ectopic beat can be further classified as either: a premature ventricular contraction or a premature atrial contraction.