Accurate diagnosis of ischemic heart disease without exposure to radiation using non-stress unshielded magnetocardiography.

Study Objectives: To evaluate the capability and accuracy of magnetocardiography (MCG) to identify patients with ischemic chest pain from those with non-ischemic pain and to verify normalcy in the MCG in healthy subjects.

Design: We studied 133 patients (mean age 59 ± 14 years, 69 % male) with chronic or acute chest pain syndrome and 63 healthy subjects (mean age 41.7 ± 12.

Magnetocardiography in the Evaluation of Sudden Cardiac Death Risk: A Systematic Review.

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is responsible for 15%-20% of deaths globally/year, predominantly due to ventricular arrhythmias (VA) caused by vulnerable cardiac substrate. Identifying those at risk has proved difficult with several limitations of current methods. We evaluated the evidence for magnetocardiography (MCG) in predicting SCD events.

Clinical magnetocardiography: the unshielded bet-past, present, and future.

Magnetocardiography (MCG), which is nowadays 60 years old, has not yet been fully accepted as a clinical tool. Nevertheless, a large body of research and several clinical trials have demonstrated its reliability in providing additional diagnostic electrophysiological information if compared with conventional non-invasive electrocardiographic methods. Since the beginning, one major objective difficulty has been the need to clean the weak cardiac magnetic signals from the much higher environmental noise, especially that of urban and hospital environments.

When Manual Analysis of 12-Lead ECG Holter Plays a Critical Role in Discovering Unknown Patterns of Increased Arrhythmogenic Risk: A Case Report of a Patient Treated with Tamoxifen and Subsequent Pneumonia in COVID-19.

Several medicines, including cancer therapies, are known to alter the electrophysiological function of ventricular myocytes resulting in abnormal prolongation and dispersion of ventricular repolarization (quantified by multi-lead QTc measurement). This effect could be amplified by other concomitant factors (e.g.

Predictive value of unshielded magnetocardiographic mapping to differentiate atrial fibrillation patients from healthy subjects.

Background: P-wave duration, its dispersion and signal-averaged ECG, are currently used markers of vulnerability to atrial fibrillation (AF). However, since tangential atrial currents are better detectable at the body surface as magnetic than electric signals, we investigated the accuracy of magnetocardiographic mapping (MCG), recorded in unshielded clinical environments, as predictor of AF occurrence.

Methods: MCG recordings, in sinus rhythm (SR), of 71 AF patients and 75 controls were retrospectively analyzed.

Magnetocardiographic classification and non-invasive electro-anatomical imaging of outflow tract ventricular arrhythmias in recreational sport activity practitioners.

Ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) with left bundle-branch-block and inferior axis morphology (LBBB-IA), suggestive of outflow tract (OT) origin, are a challenge in sports medicine because they can be benign or expression of a silent cardiomyopathy. Non-invasive classification is essential to plan ablation strategy if required. We aimed to evaluating magnetocardiographic (MCG) discrimination of OT-VAs site of origin (SoO).

Psychophysiological evaluation of patients with transient consciousness loss of uncertain origin.

Background: Psychological profile (PsyP) of patients with transient loss of consciousness (TLoC) is evidence of high prevalence of anxiety and depression. However, the mechanistic link between abnormal PsyP and TLoC is still unclear.

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate: 1) prevalence of abnormal PsyP in TLoC patients; 2) cardiac autonomic response to head-up tilt test (HUTT) in patients with (PsyP+) or without abnormal PsyP (PsyP-), developing syncope (HUTT+) or not (HUTT-).

Unshielded magnetocardiography: Repeatability and reproducibility of automatically estimated ventricular repolarization parameters in 204 healthy subjects.

Background: Magnetocardiographic mapping (MCG) provides quantitative assessment of the magnetic field (MF) induced by cardiac ionic currents, is more sensitive to tangential currents, and measures vortex currents undetectable by ECG, with higher reported sensitivity of MCG ventricular repolarization (VR) parameters for earlier detection of acute myocardial ischemia. Aims of this study were to validate the feasibility of in-hospital unshielded MCG and to assess repeatability and reproducibility of quantitative VR parameters, considering also possible gender- and age-related variability.

Methods: MCG of 204 healthy subjects [114 males-mean age 43.

Compliance in weight control reduces atrial fibrillation worsening: A retrospective cohort study.

Background And Aim: Obesity plays a dominant role in the etiology of atrial fibrillation (AF), and the maintenance of a normal body mass index (BMI) seems to prevent and even reduce the incidence of the arrhythmia's recurrence. We selected 270 patients (pts) to assess whether this therapeutic effect was statistically significant even in Mediterranean patients.

Method And Results: In this retrospective cohort study, we analyzed every symptomatic AF relapse during a total follow-up of 657 patient-years.

Heart rate variability analysis during head-up tilt test predicts nitroglycerine-induced syncope.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether or not heart rate variability (HRV) analysis during the first 20 min of head-up tilt testing could predict whether patients will develop syncope after nitroglycerine administration.

Design: 64 patients with previous loss of consciousness underwent head-up tilt testing with the Italian protocol, which involves the administration of nitroglycerine after 20 min of tilt. HRV parameters were analysed from 5 min intervals selected during pretest supine rest (phase 1), the first 5 min (phase 2) and the last 5 min (phase 3) of passive 20 min of tilting, prior to the administration of nitroglycerine.

Cardiovascular autonomic nervous system evaluation in Parkinson disease and multiple system atrophy.

Background: Autonomic nervous system dysfunction (ANSd) heralds or follows motor symptoms (MS) in Parkinson disease (PD), but may precede years and progress more rapidly in multiple system atrophy (MSA). Cardiac dysautonomia severity correlates with disabling symptoms thus a Cardiac Autonomic Nervous System Evaluation protocol (CANSEp) is useful to assess ANSd in PD and MSA patients.

Methods And Results: Consecutive patients with PD or MSA were studied.

Anti-β-adrenoceptors autoimmunity causing 'idiopathic' arrhythmias and cardiomyopathy.

Background: To determine the prevalence of anti-β-adrenoceptors autoantibodies (aβAA) in patients with idiopathic arrhythmias (IA) and to assess whether aβAA are predictive markers for concealed cardiomyopathy in such patients.

Methods And Results: Sixty-seven patients (group 1) with IA [25 supraventricular (SVA) and 42 ventricular (VA)]; 14 patients (group 2) with suspected cardiomyopathy, 12 patients with definite cardiomyopathy (group 3); and 19 healthy controls (group 4) were tested with an enzyme immunoassay, using synthetic peptides corresponding to the second extracellular loop of the human β1-and β2-adrenoceptors. Endomyocardial biopsy was performed in 29 patients.

Percutaneous method for single-catheter multiple monophasic action potential recordings during magnetocardiographic mapping in spontaneously breathing rodents.

To test the feasibility of a novel method to combine magnetocardiographic (MCG) estimate of ventricular repolarization (VR) and multiple monophasic action potential (MultiMAP) recording in spontaneously breathing rodents with percutaneous sub-xyphoid epicardial placement of a MCG-compatible amagnetic catheter (AC), ten Wistar rats (WRs) and ten guinea pigs (GPs) were studied. Under fluoroscopic control, the AC was moved until four stable MAPs were recorded (fixed inter-electrode distance of 1.2 mm).

Prevalence of virulent Helicobacter pylori strains in patients affected by idiopathic dysrhythmias.

Helicobacter pylori virulent strains have been shown to affect cardiovascular diseases through molecular mimicry mechanisms. Silent autoimmune myocarditis has been hypothesized to be the cause of idiopathic dysrhythmias (IA). The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of virulent H.

Ventricular activation is impaired in aged rat hearts.

Ventricular arrhythmias are frequently observed in the elderly population secondary to alterations of electrophysiological properties that occur with the normal aging process of the heart. However, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. The aim of the present study was to determine specific age-related changes in electrophysiological properties and myocardial structure in the ventricles that can be related to a structural-functional arrhythmogenic substrate.

From 3D to 4D imaging: is that useful for interventional cardiac electrophysiology?

Three-dimensional electroanatomical imaging is increasingly used in interventional cardiac electrophysiology, to guide catheter ablation of cardiac arrhythmias. At the same time, there is a growing interest for non-invasive methods, such as magnetocardiographic mapping (MCG), to localize the arrhythmogenic substrates, to test their reproducibility and to plan the most appropriate interventional approach. So far electroanatomical imaging has relayed on static mathematical modeling of the heart and more recently on direct merging with three-dimensional rendering of cardiac anatomy from multidetector computer tomography or magnetic resonance imaging.

Susceptibility to ventricular arrhythmias in aged hearts.

Cardiac arrhythmias are frequent in the elderly population, perhaps secondary to an increased prevalence of hypertension and coronary artery disease as well as aging related changes resulting in loss of pacemaker cells and degenerative alteration of the conduction system. Independent from underlying structural heart disease, advanced age alone appears to be a risk factor for increased susceptibility to ventricular arrhythmia. However, the electrophysiological basis of this phenomenon is still unclear.

Longitudinal study of cardiac electrical activity in anesthetized guinea pigs by contactless magnetocardiography.

Guinea pigs (GPs) are used for preclinical evaluation of electrophysiologic effects of new drugs, because their myocytes have human-like action potentials and ventricular repolarization's (VR) ion currents. This study was aimed to assess the reliability of magnetocardiographic (MCG) mapping for longitudinal studies of GP cardiac electrical activity. Eighteen anesthetized GPs were investigated with an unshielded 36-channel MCG instrumentation, at the age of 5 months (268.