Surgical treatment for cardiac arrhythmias was initiated in 1968 with the first successful surgical division of an accessory atrioventricular connection for the Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome. Subsequent surgical procedures were the left atrial isolation procedure and the right atrial isolation procedure for the automatic atrial tachycardias, corridor procedure and the Maze procedure, developed...

Despite a high prevalence of sudden cardiac death throughout the world, the mechanisms that lead to ventricular arrhythmias are not fully understood. Over the last 20 years, a growing body of evidence indicates that cardiac mitochondria are involved in the genesis of arrhythmia. In this review, we have attempted to describe the role that mitochondria play in altering the heart's electrical func...

Correspondence to: Dr Arthur A M Wilde, Experimental & Molecular Cardiology Group, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; a.a.wilde@ amc.uva.nl _________________________ O ver the last decade, we have witnessed a revolution in the understanding of primary cardiac arrhythmia syndromes. These remarkable advances stemmed from the discovery of mutations, primarily in ion channel genes...

Humans spend approximately one third of their lives asleep. Although generally considered to be a peaceful, stable period for the body and mind to rest and heal, sleep in fact represents a complex, dynamic process involving dramatic changes in physiological state. Sleep-related cardiac arrhythmias are very common and often diagnosed incidentally on Holter monitor; the vast majority are benign b...

likely to have occurred. Longstanding evidence that fetal exposure to medical radiation is a risk factor,' together with the report by Gardner and his colleagues6 linking risk to paternal occupational exposure to radiation immediately before conception, suggest that residence at birth (or before birth) may be more relevant than residence at the time of registration or death. A recent study of t...

Sudden cardiac death remains a leading cause of death in the Western world, accounting for up to 20% of all deaths in the United States1,2 The major causes of sudden cardiac death in adults age 35 and older are coronary artery disease (70% to 80%) and dilated cardiomyopathy (10% to 15%).3 At the molecular level, a wide variety of mechanisms contribute to arrhythmias that cause sudden cardiac de...

Modification of the cardiac rhythm by histamine has been appreciated almost since the compound's isolation from ergot by Barger and Dale in 1910. The major arrhythmogenic actions of histamine are an Hi-receptor-mediated slowing of atriovenrricular (AV) conduction and H2-receptor-mediated increases in sinus rate and ventricular automaticity. These actions were elucidated by observing the salutar...

Over the last decade, mouse models have become a popular instrument for studying cardiac arrhythmias. This review assesses in which respects a mouse heart is a miniature human heart, a suitable model for studying mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias in humans and in which respects human and murine hearts differ. Section I considers the issue of scaling of mammalian cardiac (electro) physiology to ...

Seizure-related cardiac arrhythmias are frequently reported and have been implicated as potential pathomechanisms of Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP). We attempted to identify clinical profiles associated with various (post)ictal cardiac arrhythmias. We conducted a systematic search from the first date available to July 2013 on the combination of two terms: 'cardiac arrhythmias' and ...