Introduction to Part I: Basic Cardiac Electrophysiology – Promises Kept and Promises to Keep

Abstract

Important methodological developments contributing to the great advances in basic cardiac electrophysiology in the past 100 years include the microelectrode for recording intracellular potentials, the disassociation of myocytes in the cardiac syncytium, and fluorescence imaging for monitoring intracellular calcium and the transmembrane potential. Significant advances in recent years include the description of the J wave syndromes and focal ventricular tachycardias originated from the Purkinje-myocardial junction of the papillary muscles, elucidation of the role of the autonomic nervous system in the generation of arrhythmias, investigation of the complex movements and actions of Ca²⁺ in the myocyte affecting electrophysiology and arrhythmia generation, discovery of new genetic mutations affecting the cytoskeleton and the transport, assembly and function of molecular aggregates within the myocyte and in the sarcolemma, and identification of disease- related alterations of micro RNA that result in abnormal functions of sarcolemma and intracellular protein complexes.