Kluwer Academic Publishers

The etiology of infantile spasms/West syndrome remains unknown; the pathophysiology is poorly understood and the optimal course of treatment is controversial. The primary goal of this volume is to carefully assess all aspects of the disorder, provide the reader with a concise guide to the most effective and efficient means for establishing the diagnosis, formulating an appropriate treatment plan and assessing the outlook for long-term outcome. Infantile Spasms: Diagnosis, Management and Prognosis also aims to provide a compact and structured knowledge-base which can be used to facilitate the development of future research protocols designed to uncover the basic mechanisms underlying this disorder and lead to more effective treatment modalities.

Implantable defibrillators as originally conceived by Michel Mirowski were limited to the detection and automatic termination of ventricular fibrillation. In the original "AID" device, the detection algoritlun sought to distinguish sinus rhytlun from ventricular fibrillation by identifying the "more sinusoidal waveform of ventricular fibrillation. " The therapeutic intervention was elicited only once deadly polymorphic rhythms had developed. It was rapidly learned, however, that ventricular fibrillation is usually preceded by ventricular tachycardia. Mirowski recognized the pivotal importance of developing algoritllms based on heart rate. Ventricular tachycardia detection allowed the successful development of interventions for the termination of ventricular tachyarrhythmias before they degenerated into ventricular fibrillation. Current device therapy no longer confines itself to tlle termination of chaotic rhythms but seeks to prevent them. Diagnostic algorithms moved upward along the chain of events leading to catastrophic rhytlulls. Rate smoothing algorithms were developed to prevent postextrasystolic pauses from triggering ventricular and atrial tachyarrhytlmlias. Beyond the renaissance of ectopy-centered strategies, long-term prevention received increasing attention. Multisite pacing therapies provided by "Arrhythmia Management Devices" were designed to reduce the "arrhytlunia burden" and optimize the synergy of cardiac contraction and relaxation. Clinical evidence now suggests that atrial fibrillation prevention by pacing is feasible and tllat biventricular pacing may be of benefit in selected patients with heart failure. However, these applications of device therapy that generally require ventricular defibrillation backup remain investigational and were not considered in this book.

Diet-Brain Connections fills a void between the fields of nutrition, behavior and cellular and molecular neurosciences by providing an integrated collection of articles that critically dissect the link between what we eat and how the brain develops and functions in health and disease. Key topics covered in depth include: -caloric restriction benefit the brain and retard aging; -effects of dietary antioxidants on brain function and aging; -developmental and function consequences of different dietary fatty acids; -biochemical links between dietary folic acid and psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders; -effects of nutritional deficit during early development and behavior disorders later in life; -neurochemical basis of the benefits of widely used dietary supplements including creatine and Gingko biloba; -contribution of dietary toxins such as metals and pesticides to neurological disorders.

When I was about fifteen, my Biological Seiences teacher, Prof. N. Benacchio, lent me a book by Paul de Kruif "The Microbe Hunters" and I remained fascinated by infectious diseases. I was intrigued by the potency of virulent bacteria which are constantly trying to invade our bodies and often overcome what today we call innate and adoptive immunity. Indeed, shortly after that, I was struck by his tragic death due to peritonitis. Later, while studying medicine (although medical knowledge in the 1950s was almost primordial compared with today), I soon realised how the various biological systems were wonderfully organised but at the same time frail and how our life could end in a few minutes. Slowly it became obvious that our "wellness" was the result of a dynamic and very unstable equilibrium between health and disease. This unstable equilibrium could be broken forever if the body's response could not reverse the pathological state. I stuck a sort ofposter on the wall ofmy room with these three words and connecting arrows: HEALTH~-? DISEASE -? DEATH As I don't believe in another world after death, it became obvious to me that we should make every possible effort not only to delay death, but to try always to shift the equilibrium to the left. In this book, I will try to show that this can be achieved, as a last resort, even with ozonetherapy.

Since it was introduced less than 100 years ago, analysis of the circulatory response to exercise as a measure of cardiac function has undergone remarkable development. Most recently this approach has incorporated the burgeoning technology of the last half of the 20th century to meet the physiological and diagnostic needs of scientist and clinicians. The ease of administration, economy and abundant data that characterize exercise testing for its relative staying power as the most frequently utilized noninvasive method of cardiovascular evaluation. The basic modalities of exercise electrocardiography of treadmill and bicycle have been extended by noninvasive cardiac imaging techniques, including scintigraphy and echocardiography, that have provided new insights in myocardial function during exertion and pharmacologic stress. At the same time, traditional exercise electrocardiography has also been refined by innovations that have broadened its applications. Exercise Testing: Current Concepts and Recent Advances affords the reader a state-of-the-art presentation of the diverse and expanding methods of exercise testing and their roles in patient management. The contributors to this volume include individuals who have made seminal contributions to the field during the last several decades. Indeed, it is legitimate to designate this group as a 'Who's Who of Exercise Testing'. It is our hope that this book will enhance the reader's understanding of contemporary methods of exercise testing, as well as provide a glimpse into future directions of this science, that this knowledge is applied to optimal diagnosis and management of our patients.

Cardiac Cellular Electrophysiology is intended for the clinical cardiologist who wishes to refresh or deepen his understanding of the cellular basis of cardiac electrophysiology, for researchers interested in the basis of the electrical activity of the heart, such as clinical investigators, physiologists or pharmacologists, for teachers in physiology, pharmacology and other biomedical studies, and for medical students from graduate to postgraduate level. Cardiac Cellular Electrophysiology starts with a primer of basic electrophysiology, the cardiac action potential and the physiological basis of the electrocardiogram. Our second aim after having introduced the basic concepts was to continue with giving an overview of the properties of the most important ionic currents in the heart, and to treat their modulation, in order to deal with the mechanisms underlying cardiac ischaemia, arrhythmias and remodelling. Edward Carmeliet and Johan Vereecke, Katholieke University Leuven, Belgium, have collaborated for over 30 years in cardiac electrophysiology research. Their studies include the genesis of the normal action potential, its changes in ischaemia, the effect of drugs, and the mechanism of arrhythmias, using techniques from the classic potential registration with intracellular microelectrodes to whole cell clamp and single channel measurements.