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This book provides an overview of the history, manifestations, and treatment of heart disease and heart rhythm disorders. In addition, it covers the effects on the lives of patients, coping mechanisms, and relationships with doctors, family, religion, and death. The book uniquely intersects the fields of medicine, literature, science, and art. Chapters begin by familiarizing the reader with the historical aspects of manifestations and treatment – discussing both scientific and psychological aspects of the disease. Chapters also discuss the evolution of several treatment modalities. Every chapter of the book contains interesting and evocative patient stories and their treatment.Rhythms of Broken Hearts will be of interest to a wide spectrum of health care practitioners as well as to patients and related family members with interest in understanding their symptoms and disease entity. _____________________________________________________________________In Rhythm of Broken Hearts, Dr. Gomes distills a multifaceted perspective with a unique story that knits history, physiology, emotion, and wisdom.Jonathan L. Halperin, M.D.If you ever have a broken heart -- romantic or medical -- you will be totally absorbed in this dazzling multicultural read. Grace SchulmanDr. Gomes's affinity and empathy for his patients and their stories narrated in this book, make universal the experiences of illness that we all must navigate at some point in our lives.Jeremy N. Ruskin, MD

A Closer Look at Heart Rate opens with an examination of the latent structures underlying short-term heart rate variability indices in a sample of 96 young adults under 4-min eyes-closed followed by 4-min eyes-open resting-state conditions. Electrocardiograms recorded during the two resting-state conditions were then analyzed using a variety of heart rate variability indices in which latent structures were identified using principal component analysis. Additionally, the authors test the hypothesis that the statistical artefact regression to the mean explains part of the baseline effect. To do this, the regression to the mean effect is illustrated through heart rate recording carried out on 1233 volunteers, from which 137 were randomly selected to obtain an estimate of the stress response. Next, 14,000 antepartum fetal heart rate tracings obtained during 2,000 pregnancies are analyzed. After 30 weeks, fetal behavior progressively changes and differentiates into three main states: active sleep, quiet sleep, and active wakefulness. The fetal heart rate pattern during quiet sleep is usually homogeneous. It appears that a heterogeneous pattern reflecting a specific quiet sleep variant has been unrecognized. In the closing chapter, the role of meditation in cardiovascular risk reduction through beneficial modulation in heart rate, and heart-rate variability is reviewed and discussed. Meditative practices are aimed at training the mind to achieve a state of increased consciousness.

It is a comprehensive resource to understand and interpret ECG in a systematic manner—covering all the basic aspects. The book reviews fundamental cardiac anatomy and physiology, explains how to indentify myocardial infarction, conduction defect, atrial and ventricular hypertrophy; and meticulously shows the reader how to recognise various types of arrhythmias.

This book introduces readers to the basic concepts of Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and its most important analysis algorithms using a hands-on approach based on the open-source RHRV software. HRV refers to the variation over time of the intervals between consecutive heartbeats. Despite its apparent simplicity, HRV is one of the most important markers of the autonomic nervous system activity and it has been recognized as a useful predictor of several pathologies. The book discusses all the basic HRV topics, including the physiological contributions to HRV, clinical applications, HRV data acquisition, HRV data manipulation and HRV analysis using time-domain, frequency-domain, time-frequency, nonlinear and fractal techniques. Detailed examples based on real data sets are provided throughout the book to illustrate the algorithms and discuss the physiological implications of the results. Offering a comprehensive guide to analyzing beat information with RHRV, the book is intended for masters and Ph.D. students in various disciplines such as biomedical engineering, human and veterinary medicine, biology, and pharmacy, as well as researchers conducting heart rate variability analyses on both human and animal data.

The Poincaré plot (named after Henri Poincaré) is a popular two-dimensional visualization tool for dynamic systems due to its intuitive display of the dynamic properties of a system from a time series. This book presents the basis of Poincaré plot and focus especially on traditional and new methods for analysing the geometry, temporal and spatial dynamics disclosed by the Poincaré plot to evaluate heart rate variability (HRV). Mathematical descriptors of Poincaré plot have been developed to quantify the autonomic nervous system activity (sympathetic and parasympathetic modulation of heart rate). Poincaré plot analysis has also been used in various clinical diagnostic settings like diabetes, chronic heart failure, chronic renal failure and sleep apnea syndrome. The primary aims of quantification of the Poincaré plots are to discriminate healthy physiological systems from pathological conditions and to classify the stage of a disease. The HRV analysis by Poincaré plot has opened up ample opportunities for important clinical and research applications. Therefore, the present book can be used either for self-study, as a supplement to courses in linear and nonlinear systems, or as a modern monograph by researchers in this field of HRV analysis.

This book not only discusses clinical applications, but also links HRV to systems biology and theories of complexity. This publication should be interesting for several groups of clinicians and scientists, including cardiologists, anesthesiologists, intensivists and physiologists. Heart Rate Variability is in principle easy and cheap, making it interesting for all kind of hospitals and private practice. The book will be an example of using translational medicine (bench to bedside) where newest theoretical results are linked to newest clinical research.

This book unfolds the history of the discovery of the transmembrane channel which is responsible for the ‘funny'or If current, the primary modulator of heart rate. Inhibition of this current leads to slowing of the heart rate, which is an important component of the successful management of angina pectoris. Recently, Ivabradine, a specific and selective inhibitor of the If current, has been developed as an antianginal agent which has been shown to be at least as effective as both beta-blockers and calcium channel blockers for the treatment of angina. The development, efficacy and complications of this therapy are discussed in detail in this book. Furthermore, the clinical benefits from heart rate reduction in patients with coronary artery disease and heart failure and in patients after myocardial infarction are examined. Whether a lower heart rate per se will prolong life is not yet known, but it may offer a new and important life-saving strategy. The current data presented in this volume will be appreciated by cardiologists and general physicians interested in the modern management of angina pectoris and by electrophysiologists and physiologists who would like to understand the importance of heart rate and its regulation.

Blood Pressure Monitoring in Cardiovascular Medicine and Therapeutics provides information that will be especially useful to all who care for hyperten­ sive patients. The various chapters provide a full account of the mounting sci­ entific evidence that blood pressure recordings need to be obtained for proper diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy for these patients. The contributors are each directly involved in clinical studies ofhome and ambulatory blood pressure moni­ toring, as well as of the relationship of circadian variations in heart rate and blood pressure to cardiovascular events. As a longtime observer of the multiple facets of clinical hypertension, I have been greatly impressed with the rapid advances in this area over the last two decades. Out-of-office blood pressure monitoring has grown from a curi­ osity to a necessity. In order to improve the currently inadequate control of hypertension throughout the world, such monitoring should become routine in the diagnosis and treatment of every patient. The evidence for the role of out-of-office monitoring that is so well described in Blood Pressure Monitoring in Cardiovascular Medicine and Therapeutics should serve as a stimulus for the more widespread adoption of the procedure. Once this is understood, the constraints on the broader clinical use of ambulatory monitoring that now exist in the United States will be lifted as the value of such information becomes more generally recognized. In the meantime, self-recorded home measurements should be more widely utilized.