Cardiac Dynamics is the name of a relatively young field of study, born from the fruitful interaction between branches of two different disciplines: medicine and physics. "Dynamics" is the branch of physics which deals with the action of forces on bodies or particles in motion or at rest. "Cardiac" relates to the clinical field of cardiology but also to cardiophysiology, both of which are specialized branches of medicine. Narrower than the well­ established field of Hemodynamics, Cardiac Dynamics is restricted to dynamic phenomena occurring in and around the heart. The mathematical treatment of such phenomena, however, is vastly more complex because of the intricate nature of the mechanisms involved in the cardiac action. Thus, whereas hemodynamics is concerned with predominantly passive (visco-) elastic structures - vessels - containing time-variant flow of viscous flui- blood -, the mechanical study of the heart requires additional con­ siderations such as: active elastic components representing the contractile mechanism of cardiac muscle, complex geometry and fiber structure in the myocardial wall, autoregulatory mechanisms, and intricate flow patterns associated with valve motion. Viewed in this light it is not surprising that attempts to describe ventricular pump function and to quantify contractile performance have not reached the level of sophistication which is common in e. g. arterial hemodynamics. For the same reason, many of the often simplified approaches to describe ventricular mechanics failed to stand up to more rigorous theoretical, experimental or clinical testing.

Product Description: Book by Robinson, T. F.

Product Description: Book by Riva, Emma, Hearse, David J.

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Product Description: Myofibrillogenesis has been studied extensively over the last 100 years. Until recently, we have not had a comprehensive understanding of this fundamental process. The emergence of new technologies in molecular and cellular biology, combined with classical embryology, have started to unravel some of the complexities of myofibril assembly in striated muscles...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: F.J.Th. WACKERS Metabolic imaging: The future of cardiovascular nuclear imaging? Since cardiovascular nuclear imaging emerged as a new subspecialty in the mid-1970s, the field has gone through an explosive growth. Radionuclide techniques became readily recognized as important new diagnostic aids in the armamentarium of the clinical cardiologist...read more