The patient was a man with a Björk-Shiley mitral valve prosthesis. During a hemodynamic study, the angiographic catheter inserted into the left ventricle inadvertently passed into the atrium through the minor orifice of the prosthesis, which immobilized the disc (Figure 1). On trying to withdraw it, we noted resistance. All attempts to withdraw it failed. We were able to advance it once again, ...

Spontaneous action potentials were monitored from multiple sites in the bullfrog atrium using a voltage-sensitive merocyanine-rhodanine dye together with a 100-element photodiode matrix array, and we have assessed the spread of the excitation from the pacemaker. Isochrone curves of conduction were obtained by timing the initiation of the action potential-related optical signals: we constructed ...

AIMS Surgical ablation procedures for treating atrial fibrillation have been shown to be highly successful. However, the ideal ablation pattern still remains to be determined. This article reports on a systematic study of the effectiveness of the performance of different ablation line patterns. METHODS AND RESULTS This study of ablation line patterns was performed in a biophysical model of hu...

The patent foramen ovale (PFO) usually is a very small potential opening in the atrial septum. Under the conditions of normal hemodynamics with higher left atrial than right atrial pressures, the septum primum is forced against the foramen by the higher left atrial pressure and there is no actual persistent opening through the foramen. However, with any, even transient, increase in right atrial...

Results CSOA was preoperatively diagnosed in 2 of 6 patients by late phase coronary angiography findings, intraoperatively in 3, and postoperatively in 1. Coronary venous drainage was through the left superior vena cava (LSVC) to innominate vein in 3, through Thevesian veins to right atrium in 2, and both in 1. 3 patients needed surgical treatment without any mortalities. The first patient with...

Millions afflicted with Chagas disease and other disorders of aberrant glycosylation suffer symptoms consistent with altered electrical signaling such as arrhythmias, decreased neuronal conduction velocity, and hyporeflexia. Cardiac, neuronal, and muscle electrical signaling is controlled and modulated by changes in voltage-gated ion channel activity that occur through physiological and patholo...

BACKGROUND The mechanisms underlying paroxysmal atrial flutter/atrial fibrillation initiation by ectopic foci from various locations are unclear. METHODS AND RESULTS We used parallel computational techniques to study an anatomically accurate 3-dimensional atrial structure incorporating a detailed ionic-current model of an atrial myocyte. At the single-cell level, upregulation of the L-type Ca...

Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) was localized in rat heart by quantitative in vitro autoradiography with 125I-351A as the radioligand. The binding association constant (KA) of the radioligand was measured in membrane-rich fractions of atrium, ventricle, and lung by a radioinhibitor binding assay. A single class of high-affinity binding sites was detected in each tissue, and a significant di...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of patients who showed increased FDG uptake in the wall of the right atrium. We have encountered 10 patients with increased activity in the wall of the right atrium among a total of 2,367 examinees who participated in our cancer screening program with whole-body PET. The mean age of these examinees was 62.9 yr, higher than that of th...