Does sympathetic nerve modulation alter electrical activation and conduction velocity in normal and infarcted myocardium?
Sympathetic excitation causes heterogeneous and paradoxical conduction slowing in infarcted myocardium, highlighting a potential mechanism for arrhythmogenesis.
This study demonstrates regional control of conduction velocity in normal hearts by sympathetic nerves. In infarcted hearts, however, not only is modulation of propagation heterogeneous, some regions showed paradoxical conduction slowing. Sympathoexcitation altered propagation in all infarcted hearts studied, and we describe the temporal arrhythmogenic potential of these findings.Listen to this article's corresponding podcast at http://ajpheart.podbean.com/e/sympathetic-nerves-and-cardiac-propagation/.
Ajijola et al. (Fri,) studied this question.