title: Mechanisms of ventricular arrhythmias: from molecular fluctuations to electrical turbulence.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Departments of 1Medicine (Cardiology) and.
authors.forename: Zhilin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.forename: James N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Weiss
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000503:physiopathology*; D053840:Brugada Syndrome; D020013:Calcium Signaling / Q000502:physiology; D000075224:Cardiac Conduction System Disease; D054849:Cardiac Electrophysiology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006329:Heart Conduction System / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007473:Ion Channels / Q000502:physiology; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology; D018754:Ventricular Dysfunction / Q000503:physiopathology*
chemical_list: D007473:Ion Channels
keywords: chaos; multiscale dynamics; nonlinear dynamics; sudden cardiac death; ventricular arrhythmias