To study whether myocardial infarction differs in patients with and without ventricular tachycardia, the hearts of 22 deceased patients with ventricular tachycardia and 21 deceased control patients were analyzed quantitatively. The hearts from the ventricular tachycardia group were heavier and more dilated than those from the control group. Histologic analysis of a representative cross section ...

BACKGROUND Isolated cardiac conduction block is a relatively common condition in young and elderly populations. Genetic predisposing factors have long been suspected because of numerous familial case reports. Deciphering genetic predisposing factors of conduction blocks may give a hint at stratifying conduction block carriers in a more efficient way. METHODS AND RESULTS One Lebanese family an...

Until recently, the use of nitroglycerin in patients with acute myocardial infarction has been contraindicated primarily because of possible hypotension or tachycardia which, with sublingual or oral preparations, would be difficult to control. The introduction of intravenous nitroglycerin and its use during experimentally induced infarction paved the way for its use in patients with acute myoca...

The heart is electrically and mechanically controlled as a syncytium by the autonomic nervous system. The cardiac nervous system comprises the sympathetic, parasympathetic, and sensory nervous systems that together regulate heart function on demand. Sympathetic electric activation was initially considered the main regulator of cardiac function; however, modern molecular biotechnological approac...

Volume densities of mitochondria, myofibrils, and unspecified cytoplasm were measured by ultrastructural morphometry in myocardium from dogs, rats, hamsters, mice, and in biopsied tissue from human hearts. Human myocardium was composed of 23% mitochondria, 59% myofibrils, and 18% cytoplasm. Volume densities for mitochondria were 22% for dogs, 28% for rats and hamsters, and 32% for mice. Myofibr...

BACKGROUND The combination of cardiac and renal disease driven by metabolic risk factors, referred to as cardiorenal metabolic syndrome (CRMS), is increasingly recognized as a critical pathological entity. The contribution of (micro)vascular injury to CRMS is considered to be substantial. However, mechanistic studies are hampered by lack of in vivo models that mimic the natural onset of the dis...

Tune, Johnathan D., Mark W. Gorman, and Eric O. Feigl. Matching coronary blood flow to myocardial oxygen consumption. J Appl Physiol 97: 404–415, 2004; 10.1152/japplphysiol.01345.2003.—At rest the myocardium extracts 75% of the oxygen delivered by coronary blood flow. Thus there is little extraction reserve when myocardial oxygen consumption is augmented severalfold during exercise. There are l...

Surgical resection of the endocardium and subendocardium often abolishes chronic recurrent sustained ventricular tachycardia in patients with healed myocardial infarcts or ventricular aneurysms, presumably by interrupting the reentrant pathway. To define the morphologic characteristics of cells in the reentrant pathway, we studied the histology and ultrastructure of the endocardial resections o...

The heart contains superficial cardiac nerves whose effects may be modulated by pericardial fluid bathing the epicardium. We tested this hypothesis in open-chest dogs anesthetized with secobarbital. Oxygenated normal Tyrode's solution (NT) or NT containing hexamethonium, a ganglionic blocker (500 microM), or tetrodotoxin, a blocker of axonal neurotransmission (5 microM, TTX), was instilled into...

During the last few years, there is an increasing interest in the role of the epicardium in cardiac development, myocardial remodelling or repair and regeneration. Several types of cells were described in the subepicardial loose connective tissue, beneath the epicardial mesothe-lium. We showed previously (repeatedly) the existence of interstitial Cajal-like cells (ICLCs) in human and mammalian ...