Atrial fibrillation

Abstract

Atrial fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia affecting patients today. Disease prevalence is increasing at an alarming rate worldwide, and is associated with often catastrophic and costly consequences, including heart failure, syncope, dementia, and stroke. Therapies including anticoagulants, anti-arrhythmic medications, devices, and non-pharmacologic procedures in the last 30 years have improved patients' functionality with the disease. Nonetheless, it remains imperative that further research into AF epidemiology, genetics, detection, and treatments continues to push forward rapidly as the worldwide population ages dramatically over the next 20 years.

Multi-Scale Assessments of Cardiac Electrophysiology Reveal Regional Heterogeneity in Health and Disease

“…Due to impairments in the left atrial electrical substrate, reentrant circuits continuously activate the atrial myocardium much faster than what occurs during sinus rhythm. The vulnerability of the atrium to fibrillate in response to ectopic foci is influenced by factors including tissue architecture, such as size of the left atrium and presence of fibrosis, as well as intrinsic properties of the cardiomyocytes affecting impulse propagation (sodium current and gap junction expression) and action potential duration [ 18 ]. There are multiple scales for assessing the contributors that give rise to an arrhythmic substrate at a chamber-specific level, including single cell analysis, cardiac slices, cardiac wedges, and intact whole hearts.…”

Expression and relevance of the G protein-gated K+ channel in the mouse ventricle

“…Increased output of the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system leads to the slowing of heart rate (HR) and an increase in heart rate variability (HRV), an indicator of beat-to-beat fluctuations in HR 1 , 2 . Abnormal parasympathetic regulation of cardiac output has been linked to multiple cardiac disorders, including atrial fibrillation (AF), atrioventricular (AV) block, heart failure, and sudden cardiac death 3 – 7 . The parasympathetic influence on the heart involves acetylcholine (ACh) acting on sino-atrial nodal (SAN) and atrio-ventricular nodal (AVN) cells, as well as atrial myocytes 8 – 10 .…”

Combining Template-based and Feature-based Classification to Detect Atrial Fibrillation from a Short Single Lead ECG Recording

“…Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a growing epidemiological problem on the world scale. It significantly increases the risk of cardiac failure and therefore has a substantial impact on morbidity and mortality [1]. Moreover, AF affects millions of people around the world and its risk increases with age [2].…”