Channelopathies in Heart Disease

Prof. Dr. med. Dierk Thomas is Associate Professor at the University of Heidelberg and Head of the Cardiac Electrophysiology Department, Medical University Hospital, University of Heidelberg, Germany. Dr. Carol Ann Remme is Associate Professor and Principal Investigator at the Department of Clinical and Experimental Cardiology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Introduction.- Part 1: (Dys)function of cardiac ion channels. Cardiac sodium channel (dys)function and inherited arrhythmia syndromes.- Potassium channels in the heart.- Voltage-gated calcium channels and their roles in cardiac electrophysiology.-  HCN channels and cardiac pacemaking.- Dysregulation of ionic homeostasis: relevance for cardiac arrhythmias.- Part 2: Cardiac channelopathies: clinical and genetic findings. Long and short QT syndromes.- Brugada syndrome: current perspectives.- Sinus node disease and cardiac conduction disease.- Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia.- Idiopathic ventricular fibrillation and early repolarization.- Atrial fibrillation.- Genetic testing for inheritable cardiac channelopathies.- Part 3: Research into cardiac channelopathies: new avenues. Novel imaging techniques in cardiac ion channel research.- Transgenic animal models of cardiac channelopathies - benefits and limitations.- Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes: towards personalized therapeutic strategies?.