New ideas about intrinsic and extrinsic cardiac intrathoracic neurons, the role of spinal cord and medullary and higher center neurons are presented. The final chapters focus on the role that autonomic neurons play in the maintenance of cardiac function in the conscious state as well as in two major clinical conditions, dysrythimias and heart failure.

The progression of heart disease is associated with changes in the neurohumoral mechanisms that control cardiac function. The degree to which this neurohumoral remodeling occurs, even before overt signs of cardiac disease become manifest, is important for prognosis. To determine why some patients experience sudden death while others sustain life in the presence of severely compromised cardiac function, the neuronal control of cardiac electrical and mechanical events must be considered. Starting at the level of individual neurons and building upwards, this book describes the synergistic interactions that occur among intrathoracic and CNS feedback loops to permit precise control of regional cardiac behavior. On this basic science foundation, subsequent clinical chapters explore the remodeling that occurs in this system with aging, with the evolution of specific cardiac pathologies, and with the psychological concomitants of heart disease. Most importantly, these chapters provide unique insights into how specific therapies like beta-andrenergic receptor blockade not only affect cardiomyocytes directly but also mitigate the adverse neurohumoral changes that accompany disease processes, such as heart failure and essential hypertension. The paradigm advanced in this volume is that heart disease is a multifaceted phenomenon involving the interplay of neurohumoral, cardiomyocyte and structural elements, each of which depends on the other. With our cumulative understanding of these interdependent processes, new avenues for time-appropriate, targeted methods of treating heart diseases can be developed.

This valuable reference provides a wide range of practical, clinical information for physicians who care for patients with neurological and cardiac problems. Clinical Neurocardiology considers neurological complications arising from cardiac surgery and other cardiac interventions describes neurological findings in heart dise

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The heart is our most important organ and perhaps our most mysterious. Every day it pumps 9000 litres of blood and beats around 100,000 times. But the heart is more than just a pump. In all major human cultures, it is seen as the source of love, sympathy, joy, courage, strength and wisdom. Why is this so? Having witnessed the extraordinary complexity and unpredictability of human hearts in the operating theatre – each one individual in its make-up, like a fingerprint – heart surgeon Reinhard Friedl went on a search for answers. He examined closely the latest findings in neurocardiology and psychocardiology, and in The Beat of Life he shares his discoveries. In the tradition of Giulia Enders’ Gut and Norman Doidge’s The Brain That Changes Itself, he uses riveting personal stories to illustrate the complex relationship between the heart, the brain and the psyche. The Beat of Life ends with a plea: that we recognise the heart’s wisdom and adopt a more heart-centred way of living, which will lead to greater health.

This fourth edition of Autonomic Failure (now available in paperback) covers the many recent advances made in our understanding of the autonomic nervous system. There are 20 new chapters and extensive revisions of all other contributions. Autonomic failure, fourth edition makes diagnosis increasingly precise by fully evaluating the underlying anatomical and functional deficits, thereby allowing more effective treatment. This new edition continues to provide practitioners from a variety of fields, including neurology, cardiology, geriatric medicine, diabetology, and internal medicine, with a rational guide to aid in the recognition and management of autonomic disorders. The book starts with an updated classification of autonomic disorders and a history of the autonomic nervous system. The first two sections of the book deal with the fundamental aspects of autonomic structure, function, and integration. There are new chapters dealing with neurobiology, nerve growth factors, genetic mutations, neural and hormonal control of the cerebral circulation, innervation of the lung, and pathophysiological mechanisms causing nausea and vomiting. Advances in the clinical management of autonomic disorders are critically dependent on the bridge made between the basic and applied sciences.