Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cause of arrhythmia-induced cardiomyopathy. Effective management strategies include medical therapy for rate and rhythm control, catheter ablation (CA), and goal-directed medical therapy. Sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i), a novel class of antidiabetic drugs, have shown a promising impact in reducing cardiovascular events in diabetic and nondiabetic heart failure (HF) patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The mechanisms underlying postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) remain unclear.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that targeted chemical ganglionated plexi (GP) modulation of all major left atrial-pulmonary vein GP using novel nanoformulated calcium chloride (nCaCl) can reverse postoperative neuroelectrical remodeling by suppressing vagosympathetic nerve activity and the localized inflammatory process, both critical substrates of POAF.
Methods: In a novel canine model of POAF with serial thoracopericardiotomies, sympathetic nerve activity (SNA), vagal nerve activity (VNA) and GP nerve activity (GPNA) were recorded; spontaneous and in vivo AF vulnerability were assessed; and atrial and circulating inflammatory markers and norepinephrine (NE) were measured to determine the neuroelectrical remodeling that promotes POAF and its subsequent modulation with nCaCl GP treatment (n = 6) vs saline sham controls (n = 6).
Background: Understanding the conduction axis location aids in avoiding iatrogenic damage and guiding targeted heart rhythm therapy.
Objective: Cardiac structures visible with clinical imaging have been demonstrated to correlate with variability in the conduction system course. We aimed to standardize and assess the reproducibility of predicting the location of the atrioventricular conduction axis by cardiac computed tomography.