Hypertrophied and failing cardiac myocytes generally show alterations in intracellular Ca handling associated with changes in the contractile function and arrhythmogenicity. The cardiac Na -Ca exchange (NCX) is an important mechanism for Ca extrusion and cell relaxation. Its possible involvement in changes of excitation-contraction coupling (EC-coupling) with disease remains uncertain. We analy...

BACKGROUND Patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction are at increased risk of malignant ventricular arrhythmias. Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) is recommended to prevent sudden cardiac death in some of these patients. Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is highly prevalent in this population and may impact arrhythmogenicity. We performed a systematic review and meta-a...

B.I. Jugdutt and N.S. Dhalla (eds.), Cardiac Remodeling: Molecular Mechanisms, Advances in Biochemistry in Health and Disease 5, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-5930-9_2, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 Abstract The potassium channel is a major target of remodeling in cardiac hypertrophy. To maintain physiological cardiac function in the face of increased workloads, hypertrophied cardiac...

• Volume 120 • Number 4 www.anesthesia-analgesia.org 737 Copyright © 2015 International Anesthesia Research Society DOI: 10.1213/ANE.0000000000000556 During the past few decades, cardiac electrophysiology (EP) has evolved from a specialty that primarily implanted simple pulse generators (pacemakers) for bradycardia therapy to a specialty with an expanded practice in detecting and terminating ar...

BACKGROUND Although the Task Force Criteria for arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) have recently been updated, the diagnosis remains challenging in the early stages. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of β-adrenergic stimulation in ARVC. METHODS AND RESULTS We evaluated 412 consecutive patients (213 men, age 41.5±16 years) referred for premature ven...

So far, the major safety issue raised by the use of stem cells for cardiac repair has been the occurrence of ventricular arrhythmias, particularly after skeletal myoblast transplantation. Although one cannot refute a potential intrinsic arrhythmogenicity of stem cells, primarily related to their common lack of electromechanical integration into the recipient myocardium, it is also important to ...

STUDY OBJECTIVE Incidence of spontaneous cardiac arrhythmias and inducibility of ventricular arrhythmias in the cardiomyopathic hamster, BIO 14.6 strain, were examined. DESIGN A 3 min electrocardiogram (ECG) was recorded weekly to 50 weeks of age. Programmed ventricular stimulation was then performed with single and double ventricular premature stimuli during both sinus rhythm and ventricular...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most prevalent sustained arrhythmia. As the most important risk factor for embolic stroke, AF is associated with a high morbidity and mortality. Despite decades of research, successful (pharmacological and interventional) ‘ablation’ of the arrhythmia remains challenging. AF is characterized by a diverse aetiology, including heart failure, hypertension, and valvul...

Hypertrophied and failing cardiac myocytes generally show alterations in intracellular Ca handling associated with changes in the contractile function and arrhythmogenicity. The cardiac Na -Ca exchange (NCX) is an important mechanism for Ca extrusion and cell relaxation. Its possible involvement in changes of excitation-contraction coupling (EC-coupling) with disease remains uncertain. We analy...

BACKGROUND Atrial fibrillation (AF) is frequently initiated from pulmonary veins (PVs), but little is known of the electrophysiological properties of PVs. METHODS AND RESULTS Two groups were studied: 28 patients (49+/-13 years old) with paroxysmal AF and 20 control patients (49+/-14 years old) without AF. Effective and functional refractory period and conduction time from PV to left atrium (L...