[Medicinal treatment of atrial fibrillation in special situations].

The treatment of atrial fibrillation has to take into account the underlying cardiac and extracardiac diseases. A successful treatment of the underlying disease will only be sufficient treatment of atrial fibrillation in very rare situations. Therefore, this review focuses on the consequences of underlying heart disease, the hemodynamics and concomitant clinical situations on the treatment of atrial fibrillation.

In situ-RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry for the localisation of the mRNA of the alpha 3 chain of laminin and laminin-5 during human organogenesis.

Laminin-5 is known to be an integral part of the hemidesmosome and therefore responsible for the integrity of the connection of the epithelium to the basement membrane. This is also an important mechanism during embryonic development, as documented by studies in mice. In an attempt to elucidate its implication for human development we localised the mRNA of the alpha3 chain of laminin with the help of in situ RT-PCR, and the laminin-5 protein immunohistochemically.