International Journal of Cardiovascular Practice

Slow heart rates, due to sinus node disease or atrioventricular conduction block, are a significant problem for many patients. Currently, these patients are treated with electronic pacemakers, which provide effective therapy, but are also associated with many problems. Use of biological pacemakers is an attractive solution to these problems. Approaches for the creation of such pacemakers include either the injection of cells that have pacemaker activity (cell-based approach) or modification of cells in the heart to induce pacemaker activity by delivering genes (gene-based approach). This article reviews the progress in the development of biological pacemakers.

Introduction: Individuals exposed to certain types of images, based on their personality features, experience different emotional states and physiological responses. The present study addressed the effects of stressful and pleasant stimuli on blood pressure and heart rate in male patients with coronary problems and healthy males based on sensation seeking levels.

Methods: One hundred and seventy eight male patients with coronary artery diseases referred to Madani Heart Hospital, Tabriz, Iran; and 185 healthy male subjects completed the Sensation Seeking Scale-form V (SSS-V). After obtaining acceptable scores, 100 patients and 100 healthy males were classified in four groups: high sensation seeker patients, low sensation seeker patients, high sensation seeker healthy subjects, and low sensation seeker healthy subjects (each group with 50 samples aged 30-49). First, blood pressures and heart rates were recorded before stimulus induction. Then, the participants were exposed to stressor pictures. After 15 minutes of relaxation, and a cognitive task, the participants were exposed to pleasant pictures. The blood pressure and heart rate were recorded after presenting the two stimuli.

Results: High sensation seeker patients achieved lower scores in diastolic blood pressure in comparison with low sensation seeker patients after presenting the stressful stimulus, and healthy high sensation seekers achieved lower scores in systolic blood pressure in comparison with healthy low sensation seekers presented with pleasant stimulus.

Conclusions: Low sensation seeker patients experienced negative emotions more than high sensation seeker patients. Therefore, the role of induced mood states may be important in relation to physical health.

Introduction: The relationship between psychological factors and Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is one of the topics that has occupied the minds of researchers in the field of health psychology. The present research aimed at studying the levels of sensation seeking in coronary patients and healthy subjects.

Methods: Two hundred and twenty-three coronary patients and 255 healthy subjects completed the Sensation Seeking Scale-form V (SSS–V). Next, 100 coronary cases (50 males and 50 females) that had referred to Madani Heart Hospital, Tabriz, Iran, and 100 healthy subjects, were compared in terms of levels of sensation-seeking. All participants were selected by purposeful sampling (aged 25 to 64 years). Data were analyzed by Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) through the SPSS 18 software.

Results: Coronary male patients scored higher than coronary female patients in thrill and adventure seeking and healthy males scored higher than healthy females in boredom susceptibility. Healthy females scored higher than coronary females in thrill and adventure seeking, and in boredom susceptibility subscale, healthy males scored higher than coronary males.

Conclusions: The identification of individuals with sensation seeking features will allow the identification of susceptible coronary patients for preventive procedures.

A dual atrioventricular (AV) nodal response and His bundle extrasystole cannot be different in many cases with certainty. We present a 31-year-old man with episodes of palpitation and conducted and non-conducted His bundle extrasystole detected during an electrophysiology study.

Guidewire loss is a serious complication that in case of a complete wire loss could cause death in about 20% of cases. Although it is essential to retrieve an intravenous foreign body as soon as possible, there are only a few recommendations regarding the removal of an intra-arterial foreign body. This study reports on a rare complication of guidewire loss during the insertion of an Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump (IABP), which has not yet been reported in the literature. The approach to this problem has been described, including the extraction time and the technique.