• In 1958, Thomas and co-workers observed that ouabain caused an increased uptake of Ca in frog heart. Holland and Sekul later reported the same effect in rabbit atria and were able to establish a reasonably good correlation between Ca uptake and changes in resting tension induced by ouabain. Recently, Liillmann and Holland found a small but significant increment in an exchangeable Ca fraction ...

The cover image is based on the Research Article Catecholaminergic axon innervation and morphology in flat-mounts of atria ventricles mice by Ariege Bizanti et al., https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.25444. Image Credit: Zixi Cheng.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is already the most commonly occurring arrhythmia. Catheter pulmonary vein ablation has emerged as a treatment that is able to make the arrhythmia disappear; nevertheless, recurrence to arrhythmia is very frequent. In this study, it is proposed to perform an analysis of the electrical signals recorded from bipolar catheters at three locations, pulmonary veins and the ri...

We report a 55-year-old female patient who presented with no P waves but with a wide QRS complex escape rhythm at 44 beats/min and prolonged QTc of 0.55 seconds on ECG. The patient had recurrence of ventricular fibrillations and loss of consciousness, and underwent defibrillation and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) several times because of cardiac arrest. The transthoracic echocardiography ...

The atria are highly complex multidimensional structures composed of a heterogeneous branching network of subendocardial muscular bundles. The relief of the inner part of the right atrium includes the crista terminalis as well as multiple pectinate muscles that bridge the thinner atrial free walls and appendages. However, a handful of studies have focused attention on the role of the naturally ...

Despite a vast amount of experimental and clinical data on the underlying ionic, cellular and tissue substrates, the mechanisms of common atrial arrhythmias (such as atrial fibrillation, AF) arising from the functional interactions at the whole atria level remain unclear. Computational modelling provides a quantitative framework for integrating such multi-scale data and understanding the arrhyt...

Small-conductance Ca2+-activated K+ channels (SK channels, KCa channels) have been reported in excitable cells, where they aid in integrating changes in intracellular Ca2+ with membrane potential. We recently reported for the first time the functional existence of SK2 (KCa2.2) channels in human and mouse cardiac myocytes. Here, we report cloning of SK1 (KCa2.1) and SK3 (KCa2.3) channels from mo...

The hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN) channels are expressed in pacemaker cells very early during cardiogenesis. This work aimed at determining to what extent these channels are implicated in the electromechanical disturbances induced by a transient oxygen lack which may occur in utero. Spontaneously beating hearts or isolated ventricles and outflow tracts dissected from...

Muscarinic agonists can stimulate rather than inhibit cardiac muscle in some preparations. In left atria from hatched chicks, treatment with pertussis toxin reversed the membrane action of carbachol from hyperpolarization to depolarization and reversed the inotropic effect of carbachol from negative to positive. Acetylcholine also depolarized the membrane and increased the force of contraction ...