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Vagal Stimulation and Arrhythmias


Imbalance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems is probably the most prevalent autonomic mechanism underlying many arrhythmias. Recently, vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has emerged as a novel therapeutic modality to treat arrhythmias through its anti-adrenergic and anti-inflammatory actions. Clinical trials applying VNS to the cervical vagus nerve in heart failure patients yielded conflicting results, possibly due to limited understanding of the optimal stimulation parameters for the targeted cardiovascular diseases. Transcutaneous VNS by stimulating the auricular branch of the vagus nerve, has attracted great attention due to its noninvasiveness. In this review, we summarize current knowledge about the complex relationship between VNS and cardiac arrhythmias and discuss recent advances in using VNS, particularly transcutaneous VNS, to treat arrhythmias

Credits: Chengzhe Liu, Hong Jiang, Lilei Yu, Sunny S. Po


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