Combining shock reduction strategies to enhance ICD therapy: a role for computer modeling.

Objectives: To develop a computer model to test shock reduction strategies such as antitachycardia pacing and shock withholding for supraventricular rhythms, oversensing, and nonsustained ventricular tachycardia.

Background: While the implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) can reduce mortality, inappropriate ICD shocks remain a limitation. Randomized trials provide evidence of efficacy, but they are not always practical.

The effects of stochastic monopolar galvanic vestibular stimulation on human postural sway.

Galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) is a technique in which small currents are delivered transcutaneously to the afferent nerve endings of the vestibular system through electrodes placed over the mastoid bones. The applied current alters the firing rates of the peripheral vestibular afferents, causing a shift in a standing subject's vestibular perception and a corresponding postural sway. Previously, we showed that in subjects who are facing forward, stochastic bipolar binaural GVS leads to coherent stochastic mediolateral postural sway.