OBJECTIVES This study investigated the hemostatic status of the right and left atria in patients with mitral stenosis. BACKGROUND Systemic thromboembolism is a serious major complication in patients with mitral stenosis. However, the pathogenesis of thromboembolism in mitral stenosis is not fully understood. METHODS We determined the plasma levels of biochemical markers for platelet activit...

The influence of sympathetic innervation on the growth and intrinsic rate of beating established by fetal rat heart was studied by culturing fetal atrial tissue in sympathetically innervated and denervated anterior eye chambers of adult Sprague-Dawley rats. One anterior eye chamber in each host rat was sympathetically denervated by removing the ipsilateral superior cervical ganglion. In oculo, ...

The transfer of Ca4' at rest and during contraction has been measured in isolated guinea-pig atria. During contraction, the rate of transfer increases considerably. The increment in the uptake of calcium by the cells of the atria during contraction is closely correlated with the strength of contraction. This relationship is maintained at different frequencies of stimulation and at different con...

The transfer of Ca4' at rest and during contraction has been measured in isolated guinea-pig atria. During contraction, the rate of transfer increases considerably. The increment in the uptake of calcium by the cells of the atria during contraction is closely correlated with the strength of contraction. This relationship is maintained at different frequencies of stimulation and at different con...

AIMS Recent studies reported slowed conduction velocity (CV) in murine hearts homozygous for the gain-of-function RyR2-P2328S mutation (RyR2(S/S)) and associated this with an increased incidence of atrial and ventricular arrhythmias. The present experiments determined mechanisms contributing to the reduced atrial CV. METHODS AND RESULTS The determinants of CV were investigated in murine RyR2(...

BACKGROUND Amiodarone and ranolazine have been characterized as inactivated- and activated-state blockers of cardiac sodium channel current (I(Na)), respectively, and shown to cause atrial-selective depression of I(Na)-related parameters. This study tests the hypothesis that their combined actions synergistically depress I(Na)-dependent parameters in atria but not ventricles. METHODS AND RESU...

Today's dynamic battlefield environment requires rapid reconfiguration and reorganization of warfighter assets, communication links, and computing resources in response to enemy attacks. The extent to which supporting operations can take place autonomously, and thus more rapidly, could be critical to neutralizing future enemy threats. This paper describes a software system developed at The Aero...

The atria and ventricles of the heart have distinct development, structure, and physiology. However, only a few of the genes that underlie the differences between these tissues are known. We used a murine cardiac cDNA microarray to identify genes differentially expressed in the atria and ventricles. The reliability of these findings is supported by highly concordant repetition of hybridization,...

OBJECTIVES The aim of the present study was to determine if myocytes can die by apoptosis in fibrillating and dilated human atria. BACKGROUND The cellular remodeling that occurs during atrial fibrillation (AF) may reflect a degree of dedifferentiation of the atrial myocardium, a process that may be reversible. METHODS We examined human right atrial myocardium specimens (n = 50) for the pres...