The explosion of stem cell research in cardiology has yielded an increasing recognition that understanding developmental cell fate decisions is critical for everything from disease models to cellular therapeutics. However, the biology is particularly rich and complex and has not yielded easily to traditional investigative methods. One area of intense focus is the study of the cues responsible f...

The explosion of stem cell research in cardiology has yielded an increasing recognition that understanding developmental cell fate decisions is critical for everything from disease models to cellular therapeutics. However, the biology is particularly rich and complex and has not yielded easily to traditional investigative methods. One area of intense focus is the study of the cues responsible f...

Vertebrate hearts depend on highly specialized cardiomyocytes that form the cardiac conduction system (CCS) to coordinate chamber contraction and drive blood efficiently and unidirectionally throughout the organism. Defects in this specialized wiring system can lead to syncope and sudden cardiac death. Thus, a greater understanding of cardiac conduction development may help to prevent these dev...

OBJECTIVES This study analyzed changes in intracardiac conduction during transcoronary ablation of septal hypertrophy (TASH) to identify predictors for pacemaker dependency after TASH. BACKGROUND Transcoronary ablation of septal hypertrophy is an accepted therapeutic option in hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM). However, atrioventricular conduction disorders, requiring permanent p...

A pacemaker is a medical device which uses electrical impulses, delivered by electrodes contacting the heart muscles, to regulate the beating of the heart. The primary purpose of a pacemaker is to maintain an adequate heart rate, either because the heart's native pacemaker is not fast enough, or there is a block in the heart's electrical conduction system (Fig. 1,2a,2b,3) (McWilliam, JA. 2007.,...

Using an antibody that reacts specifically with the myocytes of the conduction system of the bovine heart, we have studied the atrioventricular node and the spatial distribution of the Purkinje fibers in the bovine heart. This study was complemented by studying the distribution of the gap junction protein connexin43 in these areas in the bovine heart and in the human heart. The large Purkinje f...

10. Denes P, Wu D, Dhingra RL, Amat-y-Leon F, Wyndham CRC, Rosen KM: Dual A-V nodal pathways. Br Heart J 37: 1069, 1975 11. Touhoul P, Huerta F, Porte J, Delahaye JP: Reciprocal rhythm in patients with normal electrocardiogram: evidence for dual conduction pathways. Am Heart J 9: 3, 1976 12. Denes P, Wu D, Dhingra RC, Chuquimia R, Rosen KM: Demonstration of dual A-V nodal pathways in patients w...

In humans, and certain animals, the atrioventricular conduction system is capable of bidirectional conduction. Depolarization impulses, originating in the ventricle itself, may thus be conducted in a retrograde direction towards the atria. Two common causes for this phenomenon of ventriculo-atrial (retrograde) conduction are premature ventricular complexes and ventricular pacing. The surface el...