Calcium and arrhythmias: Ignore at your peril

摘要

Ischemia makes the myocardium electrically vulnerable; in this setting there are many conspirators that act to generate life-threatening arrhythmias. Changes include metabolic inhibition, myocardial depolarization, exaggerated dispersion of repolarization, changes in action potential duration (APD) restitution, intracellular Ca2+ overload, electrical alternans, and cellular uncoupling to name a few.