Dr. Charles Antzelevitch, executive director at the Masonic Medical Research Laboratory has been selected to deliver the 17th annual keynote Gordon K. Moe Lecture at the international Cardiac Electrophysiology Society annual meeting in Chicago next week. His topic will be Heterogeneity and Cardiac Arrhythmias: An Overview.

Dr. Antzelevitch has earned international recognition for his research into cardiac arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats) and the electrical heterogeneity within the heart. It wasn't long ago that scientists everywhere regarded the ventricular myocardium (muscle of the main pumping chambers of the heart) as homogeneous both with respect to electrical activity and contractility. Antzelevitch's research was the first to show that ventricular myocardium was not homogeneous, but consisted of three principal cell types, known as epicardium, endocardium and a unique population of cells in the interior of the ventricular wall that he discovered and named M cells. This novel finding has led to the understanding of the various waves in the electrocardiogram (ECG) as well as to an understanding of the mechanisms responsible for life-threatening abnormal heart rhythms. These finding have also been instrumental in identifying drugs that can prevent arrhythmias as well as drugs that can cause them and lead to sudden cardiac death.

The retrospect of ground-breaking cardiac electrophysiology research will cover the many scientific developments and discoveries made over the last fifteen years that Dr. Antzelevitch's team has pioneered.

The Cardiac Electrophysiology Society (CES) is an international society of basic and clinical scientists and physicians interested in cardiac electrophysiology and arrhythmias. The society meets once a year on the day proceeding the annual scientific sessions of the American Heart Association. The day is devoted to presentations by leading experts in areas of research representing the cutting edge of new developments.