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Cellular Electrophysiology

  • Reference work entry
Comprehensive Electrocardiology

1 3.1 Introduction

The beginning of the era of cardiac electrophysiology can be attributed to the end of the nineteenth century, when Einthoven discovered the ECG and described its configuration [1], defining it more quantitatively in a later study [2]. While the ECG remains an essential clinical tool and a symbol of cardiac electrophysiology, the discipline has evolved to address the function of single myocytes, or even of specific processes within myocytes.

Myocytes represent the functional unit of the cardiac muscle; nonetheless, the heart behaves more or less like an electrical syncytium, whose global activity depends on low resistance coupling between the myocytes. The phrase “more or less” is used here intentionally to imply that, while the activity intrinsic to individual myocytes is affected by coupling, its features remain recognizable within the context of the whole heart and are important to determine its function.

The ECG signal represents the electrical activity of the...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universit di Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy

    A. Zaza

  2. University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    R. Wilders

  3. University Medical Centre Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    T. Opthof

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  1. University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Peter W. Macfarlane

  2. Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    A. van Oosterom

  3. Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Olle Pahlm

  4. Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA

    Paul Kligfield

  5. University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Michiel Janse

  6. St. George's, University of London, London, UK

    John Camm

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Zaza, A., Wilders, R., Opthof, T. (2010). Cellular Electrophysiology. In: Macfarlane, P.W., van Oosterom, A., Pahlm, O., Kligfield, P., Janse, M., Camm, J. (eds) Comprehensive Electrocardiology. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-046-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-046-3_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-84882-045-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-84882-046-3

  • eBook Packages: MedicineReference Module Medicine

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