[Economic issues and public alcohol abuse prevention policies in France].

Objective: To analyse the impact of the alcohol market on the implementation of strong-willed public alcohol abuse prevention policies based on a critical review of the literature. Method: Documentary research and analysis of the alcohol market economic data were performed. An overview of public alcohol abuse prevention policies was conducted from a historical perspective by distinguishing drunkenness control policies, protection of vulnerable populations, and the fight against drink driving and drinking in the workplace.

Mechanism of origin of conduction disturbances in aging human atrial bundles: experimental and model study.

Background: Aging is associated with a significant increase in atrial tachyarrhythmias, especially atrial fibrillation. A macroscopic repolarization gradient created artificially by a stimulus at one site before a premature stimulus from a second site is widely considered to be part of the experimental protocol necessary for the initiation of such arrhythmias in the laboratory. How such gradients occur naturally in aging atrial tissue is unknown.

The perplexing complexity of cardiac arrhythmias: beyond electrical remodeling.

Cardiac arrhythmias continue to pose a major medical challenge and significant public health burden. Atrial fibrillation, the most prevalent arrhythmia, affects more than two million Americans annually and is associated with a twofold increase in mortality. In addition, more than 250,000 Americans each year suffer ventricular arrhythmias, often resulting in sudden cardiac death.

Cell size and communication: role in structural and electrical development and remodeling of the heart.

With the advent of new information about alterations of cardiac gap junctions in disease conditions associated with arrhythmias, there have been major advances in the genetic and metabolic manipulation of gap junctions. In contrast, in naturally occurring cardiac preparations, little is known about cell-to-cell transmission and the subcellular events of propagation or about structural mechanisms that may affect conduction events at this small size scale. Therefore, the aim of this article is to review results that produce the following unifying picture: changes in cardiac conduction due to remodeling cardiac morphology ultimately are limited to changes in three morphologic parameters: (1) cell geometry (size and shape), (2) gap junctions (distribution and conductivity), and (3) interstitial space (size and distribution).