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Circulation Research. 2000;87:1103-1107

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(Circulation Research. 2000;87:1103.)
© 2000 American Heart Association, Inc.


Review

Ventricular Fibrillation

How Do We Stop the Waves From Breaking?

James N. Weiss, Peng-Sheng Chen, Zhilin Qu, Hrayr S. Karagueuzian, Alan Garfinkel

From the Cardiovascular Research Laboratory and the Departments of Medicine (Cardiology), Physiology and Physiological Science, UCLA School of Medicine and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, Calif.

Correspondence to James N. Weiss, MD, Division of Cardiology, 3641 MRL Building, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1760. E-mail jweiss{at}mednet.ucla.edu

Abstract—Combined experimental and theoretical developments have demonstrated that in addition to preexisting electrophysiological heterogeneities, cardiac electrical restitution properties contribute to breakup of reentrant wavefronts during cardiac fibrillation. Developing therapies that favorably alter electrical restitution properties have promise as a new paradigm for preventing fibrillation.


Key Words: fibrillation • electrical restitution • cardiac action potential • antiarrhythmic drugs • arrhythmias




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