The advent of gene therapy and cell therapy has led to reconsideration of standard therapies for cardiac disease. One such area of reconsideration is that of the cardiac pacemaker, which has been the mainstay of treatment for high-degree heart block and sinoatrial node dysfunction. Over the past five years, gene therapy has been used to explore the overexpression of beta(2)-adrenergic receptors...

Of pacemaker malfunctions,1 runaway pacemaker events are infrequent electronic complications that present at any time in the life of the pacemaker.2-4 Described between 2 days and 9 years after implantation, they are life-threatening emergencies that can go undetected if they appear intermittently.5,6 Recently, we attended a 96 year-old woman with a VVIR Medtronic Minix-ST pacemaker implanted i...

Background: Lead-related infections that might develop after pacemaker implantation associated with high mortality and morbidity rates are challenging to manage and pose high-cost. Patients with lead-related infections usually present with fever, chills and fatigue and the treatment can be challenging unless the implant system is extracted. Case presentation: A 66-year old male patient who und...

The infection of cardiac implantable electronic device is a serious and potentially lethal complication. Accurate preoperative evaluation of location of vegetation, cardiac valve pathology is of paramount important. We reported a case of 71-year-old male patient who suffered from pacemaker endocarditis was given suitable surgical treatment under the guidance of real-time three-dimensional trans...

pocket infection of a cardiac device is usually treated by removing the device and re - implanting it in a new site after complete treatment of the infection. this report illustrates a complicated case of pocket infection in the wake of the implantation of a permanent pacemaker (cardiac resynchronization therapy). the patient was treated conservatively through daily irrigation and dressing, bro...

background: cardiac resynchronization therapy (crt) is an effective treatment for patients with moderate to severe heart failure. however, 20-30% of patients remain non-responders to crt. we sought to identify which patients benefit the most from crt in regard to the etiology of heart failure. methods: eighty-three consecutive patients (62 men) who had a biventricular pacemaker inserted at tehr...

The cardiac pacemaker, although comparatively new, is no longer in an experimental stage. It is now in the armamentarium of medical men and surgeons concerned with treating complete heart-block with Stokes-Adams seizures. Four or five years ago, when the need for such a device became obvious, several centers started working on different types of pacemakers that were reported almost simultaneous...

Since its first description in 1979 (Brown et al., 1979. Nature 280, 235-236), extensive work on the I(f) current has amply demonstrated its role in the generation and neurotransmitter-induced modulation of pacemaker activity in heart (DiFrancesco, 1993. Annual Review of Physiology 55, 455-472). At pacemaker voltages, I(f) is an inward current activated by negative voltage and by intracellular ...

Introduction: Metallic artifacts due to pacemaker/ implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) leads in CT images can produce artifactual uptake in cardiac SPECT/CT images. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of the metallic artifacts due to pacemaker and ICD leads on myocardial SPECT/CT imaging. Methods: The study included 9 patients wh...