Abstract
"Alternans" is an arrhythmia exhibiting alternating amplitude or interval from beat to beat on the electrocardiogram and was first described in 1872 by Traube. Recently alternans was finally recognized as the harbinger of a cardiac disease when an ischemic heart exhibited alternans. In animal models we detected alternans at various experimental conditions, including the heart with injury, the heart under emotional stress and the heart of a dying specimen. We have tested the detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) on alternans and revealed that in both, animal models and humans, alternans rhythm lowers the scaling exponent that was computed by the DFA. We concluded that the scaling exponent can reflect a risk for the "failing" heart, especially when the low scaling exponent and alternans are concurrently present. [J Physiol Sci. 2008;58 Suppl:S181]
