A 32-year-old gravida 2, para 1 woman without structural cardiac disease was scheduled for her second cesarean section under combined spinal and epidural anesthesia (CSEA). She had stable hemodynamics after delivery; however, 16 min after the application of uterotonics, ventricular tachycardia (VT) with a heart rate (HR) of 150 bpm appeared. VT lasted for <30 s, and her hemodynamics remained st...

Noradrenaline, a potent activator of rhythmogenic networks in adult mammals has not been reported to produce functional rhythmic patterns in isolated spinal cords of newborn rats. We now show that a "fast" (cycle time: 1-4 s) transient rhythm was induced in sacrococcygeal (SC) and rostral-lumbar spinal segments of the neonatal rat by bath-applied noradrenaline. The fast rhythm was blocked by 1 ...

The visual pigments, and the structure of the visual cells, were investigated by spectrophotometry and by light and electron microscopy in fetal and adult sheep. The rhodopsin system in adult sheep closely resembles that of cattle. The absorbance maxima of rhodopsin, lumirhodopsin, and metarhodopsin I are at 498, 490, and 480 nm, respectively. The estimated molar absorbance coefficient at the w...

High-renin hypertensive rats exhibit a general impairment of the baroreceptor reflexes. In the present study we compared the effect of the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor captopril (10 mg/kg per day) with the effect of the selective angiotensin subtype 1 receptor blocker DuP 753 (10 mg/kg per day) on the baroreceptor reflex bradycardia (progressive doses of phenylephrine) and barorecept...

A 31-year-old patient with Brugada syndrome presented at our clinic after an electrical shock from his dual-chamber implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD – Biotronik Iperia), implanted in secondary prevention of sudden cardiac death (ventricular fibrillation zone > 214 bpm, detection counter 18/24; monitor ventricular tachycardia zone > 176 bpm with supraventricular tachycardia discrimina...

This study aimed to examine the reliability and sex- and age-related differences of step tests with stipulated tempos as well as to clarify useful test parameters and tempos. One hundred forty elderly people and fifty young adults conducted tapping and stepping tests, matching the tempo provided by a metronome. Both tests involve movements where the subject touches a sheet with both the right a...

Case: A 73-year-old woman is referred for management of recurrent ventricular tachycardia (VT). She had suffered an inferior wall myocardial infarction in 1970. Fifteen years later, she presented with a wide QRS tachycardia, palpitations, and dizziness. Therapy with amiodarone was initiated but discontinued in 1997 because of toxicity, and she received an implantable cardioverterdefibrillator (...

BACKGROUND Although premature beats are a matter of concern in horses, the interpretation of equine ECG recordings is complicated by a lack of standardized analysis criteria and a limited knowledge of the normal beat-to-beat variation of equine cardiac rhythm. The purpose of this study was to determine the appropriate threshold levels of maximum acceptable deviation of RR intervals in equine EC...

Twelve subjects with type II diabetes and 13 control subjects participated in a study to examine whether electrical stimulation might be used as a predictive tool for assessing autonomic nervous system dysfunction in people with diabetes. Subjects ranged in age from 32 to 67 years. Inclusion criteria were by diagnosis of type II diabetes and male. Exclusion criteria were uncontrolled blood pres...

Case: A 73-year-old woman is referred for management of recurrent ventricular tachycardia (VT). She had suffered an inferior wall myocardial infarction in 1970. Fifteen years later, she presented with a wide QRS tachycardia, palpitations, and dizziness. Therapy with amiodarone was initiated but discontinued in 1997 because of toxicity, and she received an implantable cardioverterdefibrillator (...