Cardiac Electrophysiology Methods and Models

Biomedical, pharmaceutical and medical personnel are interested in studying aspects of arrhythmias at a basic, translational and applied level. The overall understanding of the molecular basis of disease has dramatically increased, as well as the number of available and emerging molecular, pharmacological and device treatment based therapies. Cardiac Electrophysiology Methods and Models will review key research methods and protocols in cardiac electrophysiology with a focus on advantages, pitfalls, practical implementation and collaborative cross-functional research. Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Front Matter....Pages 39-39 Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology: An Overview of Its Evolution....Pages 1-38 Front Matter....Pages 39-39 Basic Cardiac Electrophysiology: Excitable Membranes....Pages 41-51 Cardiac Action Potentials, Ion Channels, and Gap Junctions....Pages 53-72 Anatomy and Physiology of the Cardiac Conduction System....Pages 73-89 The Electrocardiogram and Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology....Pages 91-116 Front Matter....Pages 117-117 Principles of Electrophysiological In Vitro Measurements....Pages 119-134 Cardiac Cellular Electrophysiological Modeling....Pages 135-158 Computer Modeling of Electrical Activation: From Cellular Dynamics to the Whole Heart....Pages 159-185 Detection and Measurement of Cardiac Ion Channels....Pages 187-212 Cell Culture Models and Methods....Pages 213-235 Isolated Tissue Models....Pages 237-247 Isolated Heart Models....Pages 249-260 Small Animal Models for Arrhythmia Studies....Pages 261-279 Use of Large Animal Models for Cardiac Electrophysiology Studies....Pages 281-304 Optical Mapping and Calcium Imaging....Pages 305-327 Electrophysiology of Single Cardiomyocytes: Patch Clamp and Other Recording Methods....Pages 329-348 Invasive Electroanatomical Mapping and Navigation....Pages 349-356 Cardiac Electrophysiological Imaging: Solving the Inverse Problem of Electrocardiography....Pages 357-373 Traditional Electrophysiological Mapping....Pages 375-393 Multi-channel System for Analysis of Cardiac Rhythmicity and Conductivity In Vitro....Pages 395-417 Front Matter....Pages 117-117 Cardiac CT/MRI Imaging for Electrophysiology....Pages 419-437 Front Matter....Pages 439-439 Introduction to Translational Research....Pages 441-455 Clinical Perspective: Electrophysiology in the Young and Patients with Congenital Heart Disease....Pages 457-477 Back Matter....Pages 479-491 Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of mortality and morbidity in the Western Hemisphere. While significant progress has been made in treating a major sub-category of cardiac disease, arrhythmias, significant unmet needs remain. In particular, every day, thousands of patients die because of arrhythmias in the US alone, and atrial fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia affecting millions of patients in the US alone at a given time. Therefore, there is a public need to continue to develop new and better therapies for arrhythmias. Accordingly, an ever increasing number of biomedical, pharmaceutical, and medical personnel is interested in studying various aspects of arrhythmias at a basic, translational, and applied level, both in industry (ie Biotech, Pharmaceutical and device), and in academia. Not only has our overall understanding of molecular bases of disease dramatically increased, but so has the number of available and emerging molecular, pharmacological or device treatment based therapies. This practical, state-of-the art handbook will summarize and review key research methods and protocols, their advantages and pitfalls, with a focus on practical implementation, and collaborative cross-functional research. The volume will include visual and easy-to-use graphics, bulleted summaries, boxed summary paragraphs, links to reference websites, equipment manufacturers where appropriate, photographs of typical experimental setups and so forth, to keep this book very focused on practical methods and implementation, and yet, provide enough theory that the principles are clearly understood and can be easily applied. Cardiac Electrophysiology Methods and Models reviews key research methods and protocols in cardiac electrophysiology with a focus on advantages, pitfalls, practical implementation and collaborative cross-functional research.