BACKGROUND Long QT syndrome type 1 (LQT1) is a congenital disease arising from a loss of function in the slowly activating delayed potassium current IKs, which causes early afterdepolarizations (EADs) and polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (pVT). OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanisms underlying pVT using a transgenic rabbit model of LQT1. METHODS Hearts were perfused retrogradely, and action potentials were recorded using a voltage-sensitive dye and CMOS cameras. RESULTS Bolus injection of isoproterenol (140 nM) induced pVT initiated by focal excitations from the right ventricle (RV; n = 16 of 18 pVTs). After the pVT was initiated, complex focal excitations occurred in both the RV and the left ventricle, which caused oscillations of the QRS complexes on ECG, consistent with the recent proposal of multiple shifting foci caused by EAD chaos. Moreover, the action potential upstroke in pVT showed a bimodal distribution, demonstrating the coexistence of 2 types of excitation that interacted to produce complex pVT: Na+ current (INa)-mediated fast conduction and L-type Ca2+ current (ICa)-mediated slow conduction coexist, manifesting as pVT. Addition of 2 μM tetrodotoxin to reduce INa converted pVT into monomorphic VT. Reducing late INa in computer simulation converted pVT into a single dominant reentry, agreeing with experimental results. CONCLUSION Our study demonstrates that pVT in LQT1 rabbits is initiated by focal excitations from the RV and is maintained by multiple shifting foci in both ventricles. Moreover, wave conduction in pVT exhibits bi-excitability, that is, fast wavefronts driven by INa and slow wavefronts driven by ICa co-exist during pVT.
G. A novel, minimally invasive, segmental myocardial infarction with a clear healed infarct borderzone in rabbits. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 302: H2321-H2330, 2012. First published March 23, 2012 doi:10.1152/ajpheart.00031.2012.-Ventricular arrhythmias in the setting of a healed myocardial infarction have been studied to a much lesser degree than acute and subacute infarction, due to the pericardial scarring, which results from the traditional open-chest techniques used for myocardial infarction (MI) induction. We sought to develop a segmental MI with low perioperative mortality in the rabbit that allows optimal visualization and therefore improved study of the infarction borderzone. Rabbits underwent MI using endovascular coil occlusion of the first obtuse marginal artery. Three weeks postprocedure, we evaluated our model by echocardiography and electrophysiology studies, optical mapping of isolated hearts, and histological studies. Seventeen rabbits underwent the protocol (12 MI and 5 sham) with a 92% survival to completion of the study (11 MI and 5 sham). MI rabbits demonstrated wall motion abnormalities on echocardiography while shams did not. At electrophysiological study, two MI rabbits had inducible ventricular tachycardia and one had inducible ventricular fibrillation. Isolated hearts demonstrated no pericardial scarring with a smooth, easily identifiable infarct borderzone. Optical mapping of the borderzone region showed successful mapping of peri-infarct reentry formation, with ventricular fibrillation inducible in 11 of 11 MI hearts and 1 of 5 sham hearts. We demonstrate successful high resolution mapping in the borderzone, showing delayed conduction in this region corresponding to late deflections in the QRS on ECG. We report the successful development of a minimally invasive MI via targeted coil delivery to the obtuse marginal artery with an exceptionally high rate of procedural survival and an arrhythmogenic phenotype. This model mimics human post-MI on echocardiography, gross pathology, histology, and electrophysiology.arrhythmia; optical mapping; ventricular tachycardia SUDDEN CARDIAC DEATH (SCD) remains a major public health issue constituting an estimated 20% of deaths in industrialized countries (31,40,49). In autopsy series, nearly 50% of SCD victims have had healed myocardial infarction (MI; Refs. 24, 69). The majority of sudden deaths after MI occur due to ventricular tachyarrhythmias (26). Post-MI ventricular arrhythmias have been studied extensively in animal models. The animal studies suggest the epicardial borderzone as a key player in the formation of reentrant ventricular tachyarrhythmias due to changes in tissue structure, ion channels, and gap junctions that slow conduction and generate anisotropy (6,21,22,35,47,65,67). While these studies have greatly enhanced our understanding of post-MI arrhythmias, our understanding of the arrhythmia mechanisms in healed infarct remains limited because most of studies used 5 days postinfarction, not a fully healed post-MI heart. In additio...
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