Cardiac Mechano-Electric Coupling and Arrhythmias

Cardiac Mechano-Electric Coupling and Arrhythmias offers a thoroughly reviewed compendium written by leading experts in the field on the mechanism and consequences of cardiac mechano-electrical coupling. Its coverage ranges from stretch-activated ion channels to mechanically induced arrhythmias and mechanical interventions for heart rhythm correction. Information is grouped into logical sections, from molecular mechanisms, to cell, tissue and whole organ responses, right through to patient-based observations and insight emerging from clinical trials. The information provided carefully highlights both consensus insight and current shortcomings in our understanding of cardiac mechano-electric coupling. The book has been thoroughly revised and expanded since publication of the first edition in 2005, extensively updated to reflect recent developments in the field, and now offers a more balanced view of mechano-electrical interactions in the heart and develops a more clinical focus. Written with the practising cardiologist and junior doctor in mind, it offers interesting new insight for the established physician with an interest in cardiac arrhythmogenesis and heart rhythm management.

Autorentext

Professor Peter Kohl, Chair in Cardiac Biophysics and r stems Biology at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, UK; Reader in Cardiac Physiology at the University of Oxford; Senior Fellow of the British Heart Foundation. His research crosses traditional boundaries between fields (engineering, biophysics, biology, computing) and levels (ion channel to whole organ) of investigation, focussing at cardiac structure-function relations with relevance for cardiac mechano-electric interactions. Professor Frederick Sachs, Distinguished Professor and Chair of Biophysics at State University of New York (SUNY), Buffalo NY, USA. As the original discoverer of mechano-sensitive ion channels in heart cells, he spearheaded their characterization, aided by his identification of a first selective inhibitor of these channels. More recently he developed the first fluorescent probes that sense mechanical stress in proteins, and he focuses now on their application to dystrophy and other diseases. Professor Michael R Franz, Director of Arrhythmia Research at the Veteran Medical Center and Adjunct Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington DC, USA. His development of a non-injuring technique to record monophasic action potentials has helped to study electrophysiology and arrhythmia mechanisms in patients world-wide. His own research has targeted cardiac electro-mechanics and stretch-induced arrhythmogenesis.