Objective: Alterations in serum levels of sodium may lead to cardiac arrhythmia by affecting the membrane potentials of cardiac cells. Previous studies have documented the association between postoperative atrial fibrillation and reduction in serum magnesium level after cardiovascular surgery well. However, there is no study assessing the relationship between serum sodium concentration and atri...

Electrical isolation of the pulmonary veins and disconnection of the left atrial musculature from their arrhythmogenic effects is the cornerstone of definitive and curative treatment in patients with symptomatic recurrent paroxysmal atrial fibrillation that is refractory to antiarrhythmic therapy. The type of lesion produced by balloon cryoablation is such that the tissue architecture is preser...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the long-term results of the corridor operation in the treatment of symptomatic atrial fibrillation refractory to drug treatment. BACKGROUND The corridor operation is designed to isolate from the left and right atrium a conduit of atrial tissue connecting the sinus node area with the atrioventricular node region in order to preserve physiological ventricular drive. Th...

Introduction Swallowing-induced tachyarrhythmia is a rare clinical entity, and is defined as supraventricular tachyarrhythmia, such as atrial premature contractions (APCs), paroxysmal atrial tachycardia (AT), and paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, that is reproducibly and consistently induced during a wet or dry swallow. Although the first case of a swallowing-induced tachyarrhythmia was reported ...

BACKGROUND Surgical therapy of atrial fibrillation concomitant to coronary bypass grafting using epicardial Ultrasound technology was assessed after a minimum 6-month follow-up. METHODS AND RESULTS A cohort of 98 consecutive patients with a mean age of 72+/-7.58 years and a primary diagnosis of ischemic heart disease had surgery for structural disease. Coronary artery bypass grafting was isol...

We treated a patient with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and sustained ventricular tachycardia by an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). He then suffered from inappropriate ICD shocks triggered by paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF). We successfully performed pulmonary vein orifice isolation to eliminate paroxysmal AF. The pulmonary vein orifice isolation was a simple and useful procedu...

introduction: we report a 56-year-olds female with supraventricular arrhythmia due acute ischemic stroke without structural heart disease. case description: a patient presented with sudden onset of lethargy, right hemiplegia, and global aphasia. there was previous history of stroke 1 year ago presented with left hemiplegia that recovered completely during 10 days. there was no history of comorb...

INTRODUCTION The purpose of our study was to evaluate the effect of repeated cardioversion with an implantable atrial defibrillator on the clinical outcome of patients with atrial fibrillation. METHODS AND RESULTS The effects of the implantable atrial defibrillator on the total duration of atrial fibrillation, number of atrial fibrillation recurrences, and left atrial size were evaluated pros...

In this issue of the Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology, Kurotobi et al1 determined the number of arrhythmogenic foci in atria provocable with isoproterenol infusion in patients with paroxysmal, persistent, and permanent atrial fibrillation (AF). The results show that persistent AF has more foci than paroxysmal AF. However, when AF persists for 12 months, the number of foci were redu...

OBJECTIVE Using P-wave signal-averaged electrocardiography, we assessed the patterns of atrial electrical activation in patients with idiopathic atrial fibrillation as compared with patterns in patients with atrial fibrillation associated with structural heart disease. METHODS Eighty patients with recurrent paroxysmal atrial fibrillation were divided into 3 groups as follows: group I - 40 pat...