Mechanisms of ventricular arrhythmias: from molecular fluctuations to electrical turbulence

Z Qu, JN Weiss - Annual review of physiology, 2015 - annualreviews.org
Annual review of physiology, 2015annualreviews.org
Ventricular arrhythmias have complex causes and mechanisms. Despite extensive
investigation involving many clinical, experimental, and computational studies, effective
biological therapeutics are still very limited. In this article, we review our current
understanding of the mechanisms of ventricular arrhythmias by summarizing the state of
knowledge spanning from the molecular scale to electrical wave behavior at the tissue and
organ scales and how the complex nonlinear interactions integrate into the dynamics of …
Ventricular arrhythmias have complex causes and mechanisms. Despite extensive investigation involving many clinical, experimental, and computational studies, effective biological therapeutics are still very limited. In this article, we review our current understanding of the mechanisms of ventricular arrhythmias by summarizing the state of knowledge spanning from the molecular scale to electrical wave behavior at the tissue and organ scales and how the complex nonlinear interactions integrate into the dynamics of arrhythmias in the heart. We discuss the challenges that we face in synthesizing these dynamics to develop safe and effective novel therapeutic approaches.
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