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Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of mortality and morbidity around the world. While significant progress has been made in treating a major sub-category of cardiac disease and arrhythmias, significant unmet needs remain. Every day, thousands of patients die due to arrhythmias in the U.S. alone, and atrial fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia that affects millions of Americans at any given time. Therefore, there is an urgent public need to continue to develop new and better therapies for arrhythmias. This book reviews key research methods and protocols in cardiac electrophysiology with a focus on advantages and pitfalls. It will discuss new developments as well as traditional treatments and methods. Chapters will focus on practical implementation and collaborative cross-functional research methods. The book will contain contributions from scientists and clinicians from various academic and industrial research institutions. The inclusion of industrial experts expands the scope and potential audience of this book, and provides important perspective beyond basic science. Contributors will include researchers and clinicians from academic institutions such as the University of Minnesota, Harvard, Washington University, Case Western, Indiana University, and Manchester University. Methods and Models in Cardiac Electrophysiology will be a must-have resource for clinical academic scientists, engineers from industry (Biotech, Pharma, and Medical Device), undergraduate and graduate students, physicians, biomedical engineers, and high school and college teachers interested in studying cardiac electrophysiology and cardiac function. The book may also be of interest to students in the fields of physiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and related areas.

This book describes the relationship of the skin with cardiovascular disease. It details the variety of genetic, autoimmune, metabolic and endocrine factors that link the two disciplines. Recognition of one sign or symptom in dermatology can lead to the investigation and discovery of an important related cardiac condition, the recognition of which is important to prevent cardiovascular complications. Similarly, a cardiac condition may be related to an underlying skin condition that requires treatment.Genetic examples of such instances included within the book include: pseudoxanthoma elasticum, epidermolysis bullosa with desmosome defects and plectin defects; Marfan syndrome; Autoimmune conditions include vasculitis, sarcoidosis, lupus; metabolic conditions include insulin resistance, eruptive xanthomas with hypertriglyceridemias and elevated cholesterol; endocrine disorders include thyroid acropachy with atrial fibrillation; insulin resistance with coronary artery disease and psoriasis or hidradenitis suppurativa.Skin and the Heart reviews the effects of genetic, autoimmune and endocrine diseases with connections between skin and heart. It is therefore a key reference for all practitioners and researchers working in both disciplines.

This book is the first authoritative and comprehensive volume dedicated to epicardial adipose tissue (EAT). It provides an up-to-date and highly illustrated synopsis of the anatomical, biomolecular, genetic, imaging features, and clinical applications of EAT and its role in cardiovascular disease.It relays to the reader a contemporary view of the emerging interplay between the heart and adiposity-related diseases. In addition, this volume discusses the clinical implications and therapeutic targets of EAT in atrial fibrillation, heart failure and coronary artery disease.Comprehensive yet focused, Epicardial Adipose Tissue: From Cell to Clinic is an essential resource for physicians, residents, fellows, and medical students in cardiology, endocrinology, primary care, and health promotion and disease prevention.

As a leading reference on pediatric cardiology and congenital heart disease, Anderson's Pediatric Cardiology provides exhaustive coverage of potential pediatric cardiovascular anomalies, potential sequelae related to these anomalies, comorbidities and neurodevelopmental problems, and current methods for management and treatment. The fully revised 4th Edition addresses significant and ongoing changes in practice, including recent developments in fetal, neonatal, and adult congenital heart conditions as well as expanded content on intensive care, nursing issues, and societal implications. The outstanding illustration program provides superb visual guidance, and is now supplemented with a remarkable collection of more than 200 professionally curated, author-narrated videos. - Offers authoritative, long-term coverage of a broad spectrum of cardiology conditions, including congenital heart disease, adult congenital heart disease (ACHD), acquired heart disease, cardiomyopathies, and rhythm disturbances. - Features exquisite specimen images by Dr. Robert Anderson and Diane Spicer dissected in easily recognizable analogous imaging planes. These are included in the over 850 anatomic, photographic, imaging, and algorithmic figures, and incorporate new images using virtual dissections of 3D datasets obtained in living patients. - An extensive new section describing the non-cardiac consequences of congenital cardiac disease and other related issues Outside the Heart, including new chapters on quality improvement in congenital cardiac disease, models of care delivery, neurocognitive assessment and outcomes, psychosocial issues for patients and families, ethics, nursing implications, acute and chronic renal complications, and telemedicine. - Three entirely new, expanded sections on the Functionally Univentricular Heart, Fetal Congenital Cardiac Disease, and Heart Failure and Transplantation. - Provides a new focus on patient and family-centered care with expert advice on how to communicate difficult diagnoses to patients and families. - Features new integration of nursing content into all disease-specific chapters, as well as updated content on genetics, congenital heart disease and follow-up, and new imaging modalities. - Contains chapters on new and emerging topics such as MRI and Quantifying the Fetal Circulation in Congenital Cardiac Disease; Congenital Anomalies of the Coronary Arteries; and The Global Burden of Pediatric Heart Disease and Pediatric Cardiac Care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries - Shares the experience and knowledge of an international team of multidisciplinary experts in medicine and advanced practice nursing. - Expert Consult™ eBook version included with purchase. This enhanced eBook experience allows you to search all of the text, tables and figures from the book on a variety of devices.

This thoroughly revised textbook provides a practically applicable guide to three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE). Background is provided on the evolution of the technology and physics that support the implementation of both transthoracic and transesophageal approaches to 3DE. The incremental value of 3DE to assess cardiac chambers is also described. Moreover, a range of cardiac valvular diseases including the mitral, aortic, and tricuspid valve have been portrayed and illustrated in depth.These include congenital abnormalities, regurgitation and stenosis. Emphasis is also placed on technical aspects of the technique and where it can provide added value, including post-surgery assessments and evaluation of cardiac masses.Textbook of Three-Dimensional Echocardiography enables readers to develop a deep understanding of how to use this imaging modality. It provides a valuable resource for the echocardiography trainee looking to develop their knowledge and for the experienced practitioner seeking a comprehensive up-to-date reference.

This updated textbook provides an essential evidence-based approach to echocardiography and includes practical case-based instruction illustrating a wide variety of clinical scenarios in which echocardiography is a vital diagnostic option for physicians. It reflects how echocardiography has evolved into a complex multimodality method for evaluating and quantifying cardiovascular lesions, and explains the use of hemodynamic assessment of the heart using echocardiography, transesophageal and three-dimensional echocardiography, deformation imaging and assessment of myocardial perfusion, which have added a new dimension to real-time noninvasive evaluation of patients. Echocardiography highlights the clinical utility of these evolving modalities that are now crucial to the renaissance of echocardiography, and it provides a thorough clinical review of this most revealing and adaptable methods of imaging a patient. The Editors and their world-class group of contributors have created an essential reference for those in training or who already use echocardiography in their practice.

This volume focuses on the etiology and morphogenesis of congenital heart diseases. It reviews in detail the early development and differentiation of the heart, and later morphologic events of the cardiovascular system, covering a wide range of topics such as gene functions, growth factors, transcription factors and cellular interactions that are implicated in cardiac morphogenesis and congenital heart disease. This book also presents recent advances in stem cell and cell sheet tissue engineering technologies which have the potential to provide novel in vitro disease models and to generate regenerative paradigms for cardiac repair and regeneration. This is the ideal resource for physician scientists and investigators looking for updates on recent investigations on the origins of congenital heart disease and potential future therapies.

​This heart anatomy book describes the cardiac development and cardiac anatomy in the development of the adult heart, and is illustrated by numerous images and examples. It contains 550 images of dissected embryo and adult hearts, obtained through the dissection and photography of 235 hearts. It has been designed to allow the rapid understanding of the key concepts and that everything should be clearly and graphically explained in one book. This is an atlas of cardiac development and anatomy of the human heart which distinguishes itself with the use of 550 images of embryonic, fetal and adult hearts and using text that is logical and concise. All the mentioned anatomical structures are shown with the use of suggestive dissection images to emphasize the details and the overall location. All the images have detailed comments, while clinical implications are suggested. The dissections of different hearts exemplify the variability of the cardiac structures. The electron and optical microscopy images are sharp and provide great fidelity. The arterial molds obtained using methyl methacrylate are illustrative and the pictures use suggestive angles. The dissections were made on human normal and pathological hearts of different ages, increasing the clinical utility of the material contained within.​

This book summarizes present knowledge of different mechanisms involved in the development of positive and negative consequences of cardiac adaptation. Particular attention is paid to the still underestimated adaptive cardiac responses during development, to adaptation to the frequently occurring pressure and volume overload as well as to cardiac changes, induced by enduring exercise and chronic hypoxia. Cardiac Adaptations will be of great value to cardiovascular investigators, who will find this book highly useful in their cardiovascular studies for finding solutions in diverse pathological conditions; it will also appeal to students, fellows, scientists, and clinicians interested in cardiovascular abnormalities.

Improving our insights into the genetic predisposition to cardiovascular disease is one of the most important challenges in our field in the next millennium, not only to unravel the cause of disease but also to improve the selection of patients for particular treatments. Nowadays, for example, subjects with a cholesterol above a particular plasma level are exposed to a cholesterol lowering regime based upon the beneficial outcome of epidemiological studies which include subjects not prone to the disease, despite a plasma cholesterol above the accepted level. Identification of the patients who are genetically predisposed to the consequences of this disorder will reduce the number of subjects unnecessarily treated and, hence, the costs of health care. Because in most cardiovascular diseases the genetic component is a consequence of more than one gene defect, only limited progress has as yet been made in identifying subjects genetically at risk. For example, in hypertension only in less than 10% of the patients the genetic defect has been identified. It has been known for quite some time that in heart and blood vessels fetal genes are as high blood pressure and upregulated or induced when they are exposed to such disorders ischemia. Little is known about the function of these genes in the cardiac and vascular adaptation to these disorders; only guesses can be made.

Die Pathologie des Herzens wird in drei aufeinanderfolgenden Bänden umfassend behandelt. In diesem Band (22/I) stehen die angeborenen Herzfehler im Mittelpunkt. Um deren komplizierte Morphologie verständlich zu machen, wurden Phylogenie des Blutkreislaufs und vergleichende Anatomie des Wirbeltierherzens, normale Entwicklungsgeschichte und Prinzipien der Anatomie, Ultrastruktur des Herzmuskels und - erstmals auch - Strukturdynamik im architektonischen Verband abgehandelt. Die Pathologie der connatalen Vitien wird durch Bemerkungen zu den klinischen Äquivalentbildern belebt. Ein besonderer Abschnitt ist der Humangenetik, den Hauptformen klassischer Herzmißbildungen, gewidmet. Schließlich wird der Versuch gewagt, aus den Gegebenheiten sog. Heterochronie der Gestaltwerdung essentieller Bausteineinheiten des Herzmuskels Strukturschwächen zu erkennen und aus diesen die Pathoklise großer Herzkrankheiten verständlich zu machen.

In Heart Cell Communication in Health and Disease an extensive review of different aspects of heart cell communication is presented. The book starts with the fundamental concept that cardiac cells are communicated, and then proceeds to the role of gap junctions in heart development, the molecular biology of gap junctions, the biophysics of the intercellular channels, the control of junctional conductance and the influence of gap junctions on impulse propagation. This is the first time that a single volume has described cell communication in the normal heart and under different pathological conditions such as heart failure, coronary disease, myocardial ischemia and cardiac arrhythmias. In this way the process of cell communication is analyzed at different levels of complexity, providing the reader with a wide view of this field and its relevance to cardiology.

This monograph had its genesis in a workshop on the specific conduction held in the spring of 1975. The meeting was organized to discuss present knowledge on structure and function of the cardiac specialized tissues with emphasis on their clinical implications. Since much new information was presented, the participants agreed to prepare manuscripts and make their material available for publication. This has resulted in a book in which the cardiac specialized tissues are discussed by different specialists: the electron-microscopist, anatomist, pathologist, physiologist, physicist and clinician. Apart from their interest in the cardiac conduction system the participants shared the opinion that their contribu­ tion should be relevant to the understanding and treatment of patients with cardiac arrhythmias. The book should be useful for the clinician, the morphologist and the physio­ logist. The workshop took place at the University Department of Cardiology, Wilhelmina Gasthuis, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. This is the home ground of one of the most outstanding electro cardiologists of our time, Dr. Dirk Durrer. By pairing genius and originality with endless fund of energy and dogged persistence he made several important contributions to modern cardiac electrophysiology. In recent years he created a cardio­ logical institute where workers from various disciplines cooperate in the study and treat­ ment of cardiac disease. Several of his pupils participated in the workshop and contributed to this volume. In appreciation and thankfulness we want to dedicate this book to Dr. Dirk Durrer.

For the clinician the sinus node is more or less a hidden structure and only by indirect assessment he is able to say something about the function of this center of pacemaker activity. The morphologist, however, is able to describe the structural microscopic and even electronmicroscopic features of this structure. The only disadvantage is that, as soon as he is coming into the picture, the tissue is dead. The physiologist tries to investigate the electrophysiological behavior of the sinus node. Since there is not a human being willing to give his sinus node for research, he has to do his investigation on isolated preparations of animals. Though there are a lot of experts in the field of the sinus node they nearly never speak the same'language'. Therefore, it was my dream to bring all those people - or at least some of them -together on a workshop. I had the feeling that it was important to organize such a meeting without an audience but only with'experts'.

Heart Cell Coupling and Impulse Propagation in Health and Disease includes an up-to-date review on how heart cells communicate and impulse propagation under normal as well as under pathological conditions. The complexity of intercellular coupling and impulse propagation is discussed, providing the reader with a broad view of the importance of these processes and how they contribute to the generation of cardiac arrhythmias and heart failure. The different aspects and intricacies of heart cell communication is discussed by different authors, each one an expert in their own field. The present publication will be of interest to cardiologists, electrophysiologists, heart physiologists, cardiac pharmacologists, biophysicists, and cell or molecular biologists.

In 1956, Bruno Kisch (90) discovered a special form of myocyte in the guinea pig heart atrium which contained peculiar, dense inclusions, but it was not before the early 1980s that cardiac hormones were isolated and characterized independently and almost simultaneously by several working groups. In 1964 Jamieson and Palade (84) were the first to postulate the secretory nature of the atrial myocytes and their specific granules. In 1976, Marie et al. (103) revealed the relation of the granular index of these atrial cells with the water- electrolyte balance of the body fluid. The biological effects of purified atrial extracts, i. e., the diuretic and vasorelaxant effects, were detected in the early 1980s, (26,35,38,56). Now, a series of polypeptides, of the same family, and all derived from a homologous precursor in the different species are know to exert the diuretic and vasorelaxant effects. This development of the discovery of a peptide hormone is unparalleled in the sense that it was mostly morphologists who contributed to the final characterization of these cardiac hormones. Thus, it was a great honor for us to be given the opportunity on the occasion of the 8th European Anatomical Congress to organize a special satellite symposium on the rapidly growing field of research in cardiac endocrinology. The symposium'Functional Endocrinology of the Endocrine Heart'was planned as an interdisciplinary meeting to enable anatomists to follow recent advances in cardiac endocrinology.

Pathological heart rhythms are a major health issue. In this book experts from various fields provide an important context for understanding the complicated molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie normal and pathophysiological cardiac rhythms.Individual chapters cover a full range of topics, including the ionic basis of pacemaking, the role of specific channels and transporters in sinoatrial node pacemaking, altered intracellular Ca2+ handling in response to disease, computer modeling of the action potentials of pacemaker and working cardiomyocytes, genetic and molecular basis of inherited arrhythmias and a review of established and novel antiarrhythmic agents. Due to the key importance of the specialized pacemaker cells and tissue (sinoatrial and atrioventricular nodes) in maintaining heart rate and rhythm, special emphasis is placed on the peculiar electrophysiology of these cells.

What chemicals are poisonous to the heart and why are they toxic?Find out by reading Principles of Cardiac Toxicology. Certain chemicals can produce toxicity by interacting with elements of the cardiovascular system. This book presents the anatomical, physiological, biochemical, and pathological basis for this interaction and describes the