Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology - Part 1 pps

[...]... and Lawrie (19 89) A large number of books on the electrocardiography of arrhythmias has been published, and here we will only refer to a few, all written by one or two authors (Samojloff 19 09; Kraus and Nicolai 19 10; Lewis 19 20, 19 25; Lepeschkin 19 51; Katz and Pick 19 56; Spang 19 57; Scherf and Cohen 19 64; Scherf and Schott 19 73; Schamroth 19 73; Pick and Langendorf 19 73; Josephson and Wellens 19 84), and... potential, and the molecular biology of ion channels 2.4 Mapping of the Spread of Activation During Arrhythmias Some of the early pivotal studies on arrhythmia mechanisms do not contain any recording of either the mechanical or electrical activity of the heart (Mines 19 13b, 19 14; Garrey 19 14) This is remarkable, because in another paper by Mines (19 13a), beautiful recordings of extracellular electrograms... (Sealy et al 19 76) The era of surgical treatment of the WPW syndrome did not last long: in 19 83 the first study describing catheter ablation of an accessory pathway was published (Weber and Schmitz 19 83), and after the introduction of radiofrequency current ablation (Borggrefe et al 19 87), this became the therapy of choice (Kuck et al 19 91; Jackman et al 19 91) from which by now thousands of patients... Biological Laboratory, Plymouth, in the summer of 19 11 and was given to M.J.J by D.A Rytand in 19 73 M J Janse · M R Rosen 16 Table 1 Classification of mechanisms of arrhythmias by Hoffman and Rosen (19 81) I Abnormal impulse generation II Abnormal impulse conduction III Simultaneous abnormalities of impulse generation and conduction A Normal automatic mechanism 1 Abnormal rate a Tachycardia b Bradycardia... (McWilliam 18 87a,b, 18 89; Garrey 19 14; Mines 19 13b, 19 14) We will pay particular attention to the early studies, nowadays not easily accessible, and will not attempt to give a complete review of all arrhythmias M J Janse · M R Rosen 4 2 Methods to Record the Electrical Activity of the Heart 2 .1 The Electrocardiogram In 18 87, Waller was the first to record an electrocardiogram from the body surface of dog... not contain records of electrical or mechanical activity (Mines 19 13b, 19 14) In these papers, written at age 27 and 28 years, Mines formulated the essential characteristics of re-entry: – For the initiation of re-entry, an area of unidirectional block must be present [Garrey (19 14) emphasized this as well, as was acknowledged by Mines (19 14)] Mines describes an experiment on an isolated auricular preparation... phases of the cardiac action potential This is not the place to review in detail the “rediscovery” of cardiac electrophysiology by the use of the microelectrode, and we will refer to some excellent books and reviews summarizing the early studies (Brooks et al 19 55; Weidmann 19 56; Hoffman and Cranefield 19 60; Noble 19 75, 19 84) History of Arrhythmias 11 Important milestones in the elucidation of the... Wellens 19 84), and ignore the even greater number of multi-authored books 2.2 The Interpretation of Extracellular Waveforms Pruitt (19 76) gives a very interesting account of the controversy, confusion and misunderstanding about the interpretation of extracellular electrograms in the 19 20s and 19 30s In those days, one generally used the terminology of Lewis (19 11) , who had written that “the excited point... consisted of a small, single and stable re-entrant circuit which activated the rest of the atrium by fibrillatory conduction (Schuessler et al 19 97) Also in humans, fibrillation was found to be due to a single re-entrant circuit (Cox et al 19 91; Konings et al 19 94) at “such a high rate that that it cannot be followed in a 1: 1 fashion by all parts of the atria” (Konings et al 19 94) Optical mapping studies have... Fibrillation 1 Introduction The diagnosis of cardiac arrhythmias and the elucidation of their mechanisms depend on the recording of the electrical activity of the heart The study of disorders of the rhythmic activity of the heart started around the fifth century b.c in China and in Egypt around 3000 b.c with the examination of the peripheral pulse (for details see Snellen 19 84; Acierno 19 94; Lüderitz 19 95; . Medical College of Cornell University 13 00 York Avenue LC-501E New York, NY 10 0 21 e-mail: clc7003@med.cornell.edu With 60 Figures and 11 Tables ISSN 017 1- 2 004 ISBN -1 0 3-5 4 0-2 496 7-2 Springer Berlin. Nicolai 19 10; Lewis 19 20, 19 25; Lepeschkin 19 51; Katz and Pick1956; Spang 19 57;Scherf andCohen1964; Scherf and Schott 19 73; Schamroth 19 73; Pick and Langendorf 19 73; Josephson and Wellens 19 84),. number of seminal papers on the mechanisms of arrhythmias in which neither mechanical nor electrical activity was recorded (McWilliam 18 87a,b, 18 89; Garrey 19 14; Mines 19 13b, 19 14). We will pay particular