malities in calcium handling have been implicated as a significant source of electrical instability in heart failure (HF). While these abnormalities have been investigated extensively in isolated myocytes, how they manifest at the tissue level and trigger arrhythmias is not clear. We hypothesize that in HF, triggered activity (TA) is due to spontaneous calcium release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum that occurs in an aggregate of myocardial cells (an SRC) and that peak SCR amplitude is what determines whether TA will occur. Calcium and voltage optical mapping was performed in ventricular wedge preparations from canines with and without tachycardia-induced HF. In HF, steady-state calcium transients have reduced amplitude [135 vs. 170 ratiometric units (RU), P Ͻ 0.05] and increased duration (252 vs. 229 s, P Ͻ 0.05) compared with those of normal. Under control conditions and during -adrenergic stimulation, TA was more frequent in HF (53% and 93%, respectively) compared with normal (0% and 55%, respectively, P Ͻ 0.025). The mechanism of arrhythmias was SCRs, leading to delayed afterdepolarization-mediated triggered beats. Interestingly, the rate of SCR rise was greater for events that triggered a beat (0.41 RU/ms) compared with those that did not (0.18 RU/ms, P Ͻ 0.001). In contrast, there was no difference in SCR amplitude between the two groups. In conclusion, TA in HF tissue is associated with abnormal calcium regulation and mediated by the spontaneous release of calcium from the sarcoplasmic reticulum in aggregates of myocardial cells (i.e., an SCR), but importantly, it is the rate of SCR rise rather than amplitude that was associated with TA. heart failure; arrhythmia; delayed afterdepolarization; triggered activity HEART FAILURE (HF) is a serious public health problem that afflicts millions of people in the United States alone (32). HF is associated with impaired cardiac contractility and relaxation, as well as a high incidence of ventricular arrhythmias and sudden death. Abnormal calcium handling has been implicated as a source of both mechanical and electrical dysfunction observed in HF, making it a key target for investigation and clinical therapy.At the myocyte level, impaired ventricular contractility and relaxation in HF have been attributed to decreased calcium transient amplitude due to diastolic sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) calcium leak (12,13,35) and reduced SR calcium uptake (3,8,22,24). Calcium dysregulation in human HF has been associated with a significant incidence of nonreentrant arrhythmias (28,30,33) that can occur as the result of early afterdepolarizations (EADs) or delayed afterdepolarizations (DADs). At the subcellular level, a DAD is caused by spontaneous calcium release from the SR that activates a transient inward current with a magnitude that depends on the amount of calcium flux (33). While studies in isolated myocytes have provided valuable insight into cellular pathophysiology, the translation of these results to arrhythmogenesis at the tissue level is not straightforward.The fact...