Study of the effect of cardiac nerves on heart rhythm disturbance

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  The role of the intrinsic cardiac autonomic nervous system in human arrhythmogenesis

• IRAS ID

  165064

• Contact name

  Prapa Kanagaratnam

• Sponsor organisation

  Imperial College London Clinical Research Office

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 0 months, 0 days

• Research summary

  Atrial fibrillation is a common heart rhythm disturbance, characterised by rapid irregular electrical activity within the atria. Atrial fibrillation is initiated by an ectopic 'trigger' originating from the pulmonary veins, and sustained by the atrial electrophysiological 'substrate'. Both sympathetic and parasympathetic limbs of the autonomic nervous system have been implicated in atrial fibrillation by animal studies. Clinical catheter ablation techniques are now being employed to target ablation at autonomic nerves within the heart with some success; yet the exact mechanism underlying their role in heart rhythm disturbance is poorly understood.

  In this study, we aim to increase our understanding the role of both limbs of the autonomic nervous system by selectively stimulating these autonomic nerves to observe the effect, followed by administering autonomically active short-acting drugs (such as beta blockers, atropine and isoprenaline) to see if different effects are observed following drug administration.

  This will increase our understanding into the differential effects of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system on initiation and maintenance of heart rhythm abnormalities. The increased understanding may help to rationalise our approach to ablation for heart rhythm disturbances.

• REC name

  London - Fulham Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  14/LO/2044

• Date of REC Opinion

  3 Dec 2014

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion