Permanent pacing for late-onset atrioventricular block in patients with heart transplantation: a single center experience.

Introduction: The incidence, mechanisms, clinical associations, and outcomes in patients with late-onset (>3 months) atrioventricular (AV) block following heart transplantation are not well known. This study will characterize late-onset AV block following cardiac transplantation.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed our databases to identify patients who required pacemakers for late-onset AV block postheart and heart-lung transplantation from January 1990 to December 2007.

Left ventricular mechanical assist devices and cardiac device interactions: an observational case series.

Background: Nonpulsatile left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are increasingly used for treatment of refractory heart failure. A majority of such patients have implanted cardiac devices, namely implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) or cardiac resynchronization therapy-pacemaker (CRT-P) or cardiac resynchronization therapy-defibrillator (CRT-D) devices. However, potential interactions between LVADs and cardiac devices in this category of patients remain unknown.

Stretch-sensitive KCNQ1 mutation A link between genetic and environmental factors in the pathogenesis of atrial fibrillation?

Objectives: This study sought to evaluate mutations in genes encoding the slow component of the cardiac delayed rectifier K+ current (I(Ks)) channel in familial atrial fibrillation (AF).

Background: Although AF can have a genetic etiology, links between inherited gene defects and acquired factors such as atrial stretch have not been explored.

Methods: Mutation screening of the KCNQ1, KCNE1, KCNE2, and KCNE3 genes was performed in 50 families with AF.

Ventricular tachycardia following ingestion of a commonly used antihistamine.

This report describes ventricular tachycardia, likely to have been torsade de pointes, following ingestion of the non-sedating antihistamine loratadine. Documentation of the arrhythmia was made possible by the automatic electrogram storage facility of an implanted defibrillator in a patient with no prior history of cardiac arrhythmia.