The cardiac polypeptide hormones atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) are synthesized and costored by atrial cardiocytes and share receptors and many biologic properties. Although some aspects of their synthesis and release are specific for each peptide, it is not clear whether they share intracellular sorting and secretory mechanisms. In the present work we take ...

Heart contains a variety of neurons known to influence cardiac functions. Little is known about the neurochemistry of these neurons. In this study, neurochemistry of intra cardiac neurons of the intrinsic cardiac ganglia was investigated. The technique used allows studying the morphology of the ganglionated nerve plexus found within the atria and great cardiac vessels as well as of individual n...

OBJECTIVE Rapid ventricular pacing in dogs results in a low output cardiomyopathic state similar to idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy in man. Cell death by apoptosis may play an important role in the loss of cardiac function. This study investigates the molecular pathways involved in the regulation of apoptosis in dogs with pacing-induced heart failure. METHODS Apoptosis was identified by ter...

New onset atrial fibrillation (AF) is the commonest complication after cardiac surgery affecting around 30% of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients, up to 50% of valve surgery patients and as many as 60% of those undergoing combined valve and CABG operations. After cardiac transplantation where the native pulmonary veins are electrically separated from the donor heart atria the incidenc...

22.12 (2002). 66. Beatch GN, Shinagawa K, Johnson BD et al. RSD1235 selectively prolongs atrial refractoriness and terminates AF in dogs with electrically remodeled atria. S. World. Congr. Pharmacol. 24, Abstract 21.11 (2002). 67. Cardiome drug effective for heart patients. Cardiome Pharma Corp. Press Release

Certain aspects of the acetylcholine hypothesis of cardiac automatidty have been tested in dtro with spontaneously beating cardiac tissue from rabbits, rats, dams, and hagfish. The beat of atria from rabbits and rats may be depressed or excited by acetylcholine, depending upon the state of the tissue. Proguanil and cocaine inhibition of the beat in the rat may be antagonized by acetylcholine so...

We have space here to give only the briefest outline of the processes we are trying to model; the interested reader should consult one of the standard textS2. The heart consists of four chambers: two atria and two ventricles . Electrically, however, the two atria can be considered as one, and we shall refer only to the atrium ; likewise for the two ventricles. In essence the function of the car...

Computational models of the heart, from cell-level models, through one-, two- and three-dimensional tissue-level simplifications, to biophysically-detailed ventricles, atria or whole allow simulation excitation propagation this excitation, have provided remarkable insight into normal pathological functioning heart. In article we present equations for modelling cellular (i.e. cell action potenti...

Despite the oft-quoted assertion that the heart is an organ too noble to be attacked by a primary tumour (de Senac, 1783), such neoplasms are being reported with increasing frequency. While these primary tumours may occur in any part of the heart they are least frequent on the valves and most common in the atria (Rucks, Russell, and Motley, 1963). We report a very unusual primary malignant hear...

In congestive heart failure (CHF) the alterations in cardiac NO synthase (NOS) isoforms activity and expression are incompletely documented and the chamber specificity of these changes is unknown. We studied plasma nitrate-nitrite ([Formula: see text]), atrial, and ventricular NOS activities and protein expression (Western blot and densitometric analysis) in nonpaced control dogs and in dogs pa...