The rhythm of the heart, its normal functioning and pathologic disturbances, has been a favored subject of investigation by clinical and basic scientists in recent decades. This heightened interest and attention was stimulated by the somber and surprising revelations from epidemiologists and pathologists of the enormity of the number of sudden arrhythmic deaths in the Western world, and the concurrent advancement of technology for recording and control of electrical activity of the heart. Technological advancements have included the recording of intracellular potentials from cardiac cells, the recording of intracardiac extra cellular potentials generated by specific cardiac structures, simultaneous record ings from numerous sites with computer processing for spatial mapping of activa tion or potential variations with time, high gain, high resolution recordings with signal averaging for detecting potentials of low amplitudes, complex stimulation protocols, various high energy stimulation modes, intracellular voltage control of multicellular preparations and single cardiac cells, and the isolation of single cardiac cells for electrophysiological study. The interest and technology have produced an increasing bounty of information and understanding, acceptable solutions to some clinical problems, and definite progress toward solutions to other problems. Progress in research in electrophysiology and arrhythmias has been reviewed and highlighted in various meetings and books in recent years. Because the body of information has become so large, general overviews of the field have neces sarily been superficial in certain aspects or have contained gaps.

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Mechanisms.- 1. Cellular mechanisms of ventricular arrhythmias in ischemia.- 2. Cellular mechanisms for ectopy in non-ischemic ventricle.- 3. Mechanisms of ventricular tachycardias in experimental animal models of ischemic heart disease.- Autonomic Nervous System.- 4. Parasympathetic effects on electrophysiological properties of mammalian ventricular tissues.- 5. Clinical evaluation of the role of the autonomic nervous system in ventricular arrhythmias.- Etiology and Prognostic.- 6. Sustained ventricular tachycardia in the acute phase of myocardial infarction.- 7. Ventricular tachycardias in non ischemic disease.- 8. Ventricular tachycardias in individuals with apparently normal heart.- 9. Right ventricular dysplasias.- 10. Ventricular arrhythmias in the young: clinical and experimental findings.- 11. Late ventricular tachycardia after repair of tetralogy of Fallot.- 12. Drug-induced torsades de pointes: clinical and experimental observations bearing on mechanism.- 13. Mechanisms of sudden death during holter monitoring.- Clinical Aspects and Non Invasive Methods.- 14. Exercise stress testing in the management of ventricular tachycardias.- 15. Malignant arrhythmias during exercise testing. A French cooperative study.- 16. The value of the 12 lead ECG in diagnosing ventricular tachycardia and in localizing its site of origin.- 17. Regional phase mapping of radionuclide gated biventriculograms in patients with sustained ventricular tachycardia.- 18. Methods and results of noninvasive detection of ventricular late potentials.- 19. Role of ventricular late potentials for identification of patients at risk of ventricular tachycardia.- 20. The contribution of electrophysiologic techniques to the diagnosis of ventricular tachycardia.- 21.Mechanisms of ventricular tachycardia. Reentry versus triggered activity in man.- 22. Is there an ideal ventricular stimulation protocol?.- 23. The role of electrophysiological studies in the management and therapy of recurrent ventricular tachycardias in patients with ischemic heart disease.- Medical Therapy.- 24. Pharmacokinetics of antiarrhythmic drugs.- 25. Invasive electrophysiological tests in the choice of class I antiarrhythmic drugs.- 26. New drugs for the treatment of ventricular tachycardia.- Electrical Therapy.- 27. Permanent pacemakers for ventricular tachycardia control: current status.- 28. Prevention of arrhythmic death with the automatic implantable cardioverter-defibrillator.- 29. Catheter endocardial mapping in fulguration.- 30. Catheter ablation of ventricular tachycardia foci.- Surgical Therapy.- 31. Intraoperative mapping of ventricular tachycardia associated with coronary artery disease.- 32. Surgery for ventricular arrhythmias. A review.- 33. Surgery of refractory ventricular tachycardia by Nd-YAG photoblation.- Index of subjects.