Abstract
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) convened a workshop
of cardiologists, cardiac electrophysiologists, cell biophysicists,
and computational modelers on August 20 and 21, 2007, in Washington,
DC, to advise the NHLBI on new research directions needed to develop
integrative approaches to elucidate human cardiac function. The workshop
strove to identify limitations in the use of data from nonhuman animal
species for elucidation of human electromechanical function/activity
and to identify what specific information on ion channel kinetics,
calcium handling, and dynamic changes in the intracellular/extracellular
milieu is needed from human cardiac tissues to develop more robust
computational models of human cardiac electromechanical activity.
This article summarizes the workshop discussions and recommendations
on the following topics: (1) limitations of animal models and differences
from human electrophysiology, (2) modeling ion channel structure/function
in the context of whole-cell electrophysiology, (3) excitation-contraction
coupling and regulatory pathways, (4) whole-heart simulations of
human electromechanical activity, and (5) what human data are currently
needed and how to obtain them. The recommendations can be found on
the NHLBI Web site at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/meetings/workshops/electro.htm.
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