Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of mortality and morbidity in the Western Hemisphere.
While significant progress has been made in treating a major sub-category of cardiac disease
arrhythmias significant unmet needs remain. In particular every day thousands of patients
die because of arrhythmias in the US alone and atrial fibrillation is the most common
arrhythmia affecting millions of patients in the US alone at a given time. Therefore there is
a public need to continue to develop new and better therapies for arrhythmias. Accordingly an
ever increasing number of biomedical pharmaceutical and medical personnel is interested in
studying various aspects of arrhythmias at a basic translational and applied level both in
industry (ie Biotech Pharmaceutical and device) and in academia. Not only has our overall
understanding of molecular bases of disease dramatically increased but so has the number of
available and emerging molecular pharmacological or device treatment based therapies. This
practical state-of-the art handbook will summarize and review key research methods and
protocols their advantages and pitfalls with a focus on practical implementation and
collaborative cross-functional research. The volume will include visual and easy-to-use
graphics bulleted summaries boxed summary paragraphs links to reference websites equipment
manufacturers where appropriate photographs of typical experimental setups and so forth to
keep this book very focused on practical methods and implementation and yet provide enough
theory that the principles are clearly understood and can be easily applied.
