Heart Rhythm UK position statement on clinical indications for implantable cardioverter defibrillators in adult patients with familial sudden cardiac death syndromes

Whilst the decision regarding defibrillator implantation in a patient with a familial sudden cardiac death syndrome is likely to be most significant for any particular individual, the clinical decision-making process itself is complex and requires interpretation and extrapolation of information from a number of different sources. This document provides recommendations for adult patients with the congenital Long QT syndromes, Brugada syndrome, catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. Although these specific conditions differ in terms of clinical features and prognosis, it is possible and logical to take an approach to determining a threshold for implantable cardioveter-defibrillator implantation that is common to all of the familial sudden cardiac death syndromes based on estimates of absolute risk of sudden death. Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. © The Author 2010.

Behavioural, physiological and morphological adaptations of the shanny (Blennius pholis) to the intertidal habitat

Immersed shannies (Blennius pholis) showed peak locomotory activity coincident with daylight high tides. Emersion caused cessation of breathing and bradycardia though Q02 was little affected. Q02 fell, however, when the abdomen was enclosed in an impermeable sheath to block cutaneous respiration. Gulping of air into the extensively vascular oesophagus probably also acts as a means of aerial respiration. Reimmersion of fish caused a transient bradycardia followed by a tachycardia and a fall in Q02 followed subsequently by a rise. The results are discussed in relation to the behavioural, circulatory, respiratory and morphological adaptations of the shanny to the intertidal habitat.