An effective risk stratification which could help us identify high-risk patients who should take oral anticoagulants (OACs) is the key step for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (SPAF). Several scoring systems were available to estimate the risk of stroke in AF, including CHADS2, CHA2DS2-VASc, R2CHADS2 and ATRIA scores, which were constituted of different clinical risk factors. Recently,...

Coronary anatomy has traditionally focused on ventricular circulation. This is largely due to the extent to which coronary artery disease contributes to ischemic heart disease through ventricular myocardial damage. Atrial fibrillation and other tachyarrhythmias that involve the atria, however, remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality. In order to increase mechanistic research and therape...

A 12-lead ECG was obtained soon after the birth of a pair of omphalo-thoracopagus (Figure 1) conjoined twins. Before birth, they had been diagnosed with two separate hearts that shared a wide communication through the independently defined right atria. Other anomalies including a common liver with two gallbladders and two stomachs with common jejunum and ileum beyond the duodenum were also note...

INTRODUCTION Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome is one of the most important disorders of the heart conduction system. It is caused by the presence of an abnormal accessory electrical conduction pathway between the atria and the ventricles. CASE PRESENTATION In the present report, we describe the correct oral health management of a 12-year-old Caucasian girl with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. ...

Samples of myocardial tissue were obtained during cardiac surgery from children operated for different types of normoxemic and hypoxemic congenital heart diseases. The phospholipid composition was analyzed by thin layer chromatography. The concentration of total phospholipids (PL), phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) was found lower in atrial tissue of both normoxemic and hypo...

During vertebrate heart development, two progenitor populations, first and second heart fields (FHF, SHF), sequentially contribute to longitudinal subdivisions of the heart tube (HT), with the FHF contributing the left ventricle and part of the atria, and the SHF the rest of the heart. Here, we study the dynamics of cardiac differentiation and morphogenesis by tracking individual cells in live ...

We present the progressive nature of the disease in a 26 year-old woman who had suffered from Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy detected at the age of three. In 2002, at the age of 20, due to recurring presyncopal states accompanied by sinus bradycardia and atrioventricular block, she was implanted with a dual chamber pacing system. During testing of the pacing in 2008, permanent electrical atr...

Choline acetyltransferase activity, which is rate limiting in acetylcholine biosynthesis, was measured in the four heart chambers of guinea pigs subjected to (1) sham surgery, (2) constriction of the ascending aorta, (3) constriction of the descending thoracic aorta, and (4) constriction of the pulmonary artery. After 30 days when hypertrophy and heart failure were fully established, choline ac...