July 1, 1999Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology
Discontinuous Propagation of the Cardiac Impulse and Arrhythmogenesis
Key result
Increasing the degree of structural discontinuity in cardiac tissue creates a substrate for reentrant arrhythmias, though direct effects on arrhythmia initiation remain difficult to extrapolate.
Population
Cardiac tissue and cellular networks
Design
Review
Authors
Discussion
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Implication
Tissue discontinuity may refine arrhythmia substrate assessment; leaves open whether targeting remodeling alters clinical reentry risk.
Structured PICO
P
Population
Cardiac tissue and cellular networks
O
Outcome
Impulse propagation and arrhythmogenesis
This review highlights how the discontinuous architecture of cardiac tissue influences impulse propagation and creates a substrate for reentrant arrhythmias.
Limitations
- Difficult to extrapolate findings of experimental and theoretical work at the cellular level directly to whole hearts and human pathologies.
- No direct effects of tissue discontinuities on arrhythmia initiation have been demonstrated so far, with the exception of spiral wave initiation in vitro.
- Difficult to extrapolate findings of experimental and theoretical work at the cellular level directly to whole hearts and human pathologies where several mechanisms for initiation and maintenance of tachycardias may coexist.
Cite This Study
Rudy et al. (1999) conducted a review in Arrhythmogenesis. Structural discontinuity of cardiac tissue was evaluated. Increasing the degree of structural discontinuity in cardiac tissue creates a substrate for reentrant arrhythmias, though direct effects on arrhythmia initiation remain difficult to extrapolate.