Arrhythmias in Dilated Cardiomyopathy: Diagnosis and Treatment

In patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), it is possible to find a broad range of bradyrhythmias and tachyarrhythmias. Bradyrhythmias and supraventricular arrhythmias can frequently occur in some familial forms such as lamin A/C mutations. Nonsustained ventricular arrhythmias (VA) are observed in about 40% of patients with DCM, but their prognostic role is not clear, and conflicting data have been published in the last 30 years. Multiple mechanisms can explain atrial and ventricular tachyarrhythmias in DCM. Reentry is associated with slow conduction across surviving muscle bundles within regions of interstitial fibrosis, but other mechanisms can be involved, as nonuniform anisotropy of impulse propagation, ion channel dysfunction, and reduced gap junction function

Occult atrial fibrillation in endurance athletes

Ashim Aggarwal,1 Jeffrey J Heslop,1 Rebecca R Wigant,1 Suneetha Venkatapuram,1 Stephanie J Hillis,1 Alan R Parr,1 Hakan Oral,2 Timir S Baman11Cardiology Department, University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria and OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, Peoria, IL, USA; 2Cardiac Arrhythmia Service, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USAAlthough low-to-moderate intensity exercise has been shown to result in decreased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, limited data suggest that there may be an association between atrial fibrillation (AF) and trained endurance athletes.1 The aim of our study was to prospectively evaluate moderately trained athletes for the occurrence of occult AF