This book provides undergraduate and postgraduate students with an accessible and comprehensive overview of the fascinating area of cardiac electrophysiology. Using plain language and well-designed illustrations, it attempts to overcome the preconceptions of the subject as difficult to approach, given the complexity of intricate electrical cellular processes within the human heart. Based on lectures presented to intercalating BSc medical students, this book has been designed with the undergraduate in mind, but offers enough scope to be worthwhile at the postgraduate level.
Readers of this book will feel more confident and at ease with electrical concepts and the important physiological mechanisms that govern the initiation and regulation of the heartbeat. This volume intends to bridge that difficult region between basic undergraduate lecture notes and original papers in an approachable way. It will be useful to students studying medicine, physiology, pharmacology, pharmacy and biology, particularly where their curricula includes not only cardiac physiology, but also neurobiology and muscle physiology.
Contents:- Introduction
- The Resting Membrane Potential
- Measuring Membrane Currents
- Channel Structure and Function
- Active Transporters
- Currents Flowing During the Early Part of the Ventricular Action Potential
- Currents Flowing During the Later Part of the Ventricular Action Potential
- Ionic Basis of Automaticity
- Conduction, Arrhythmias and Anti-arrhythmic Agents
Readership: Undergraduate and postgraduate students studying medicine, physiology, pharmacology, pharmacy and biology.