Regulation of ion channels and arrhythmias in the ischemic heart.

Ventricular arrhythmias in the setting of ischemic heart disease is a leading cause of mortality in the United States. A better understanding of the complex changes associated with ischemic injury is likely to improve our ability to design better treatment strategies for patients who have coronary events. A major difficulty in treating those patients arises from the complexity of the electrophysiological changes that occur with varying time courses during the ischemic episode and the reperfusion phase. Here, we discuss some of the key cellular and network electrophysiological changes that are associated with ischemic injury and highlight the link between alterations in the energetic/metabolic substrate of the heart and electrical dysfunction.