Postoperative atrial fibrillation (PoAF), a form of arrhythmia, complicates 20-40% of cardiac surgical procedures and 10–20% of non-cardiac thoracic operations, cropping up two to four days after surgery to pose risk of stroke, heart attack, mortality, longer hospital stays and greater cost.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators have used high-throughput robotic technology to rapidly study and classify variations in a gene linked to heart rhythm disorders and cardiac conditions.

VUMC receives more than $3.7 million from the American Heart Association to study cardiac arrhythmia and sudden cardiac arrest

Risk factors for arrhythmias after heart surgery in infants include medications, infant age and higher surgical complexity, but not two genetic variants examined by Vanderbilt researchers.

Structural views of the proteins that regulate the heartbeat may help improve existing treatments for cardiac arrhythmias.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is the first in the state to enroll patients in a clinical trial testing the effectiveness of the newest implantable device used to reduce stroke risk in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common form of arrhythmia.

Björn Knollmann, M.D., Ph.D., has been named director of the newly formed Vanderbilt Center for Arrhythmia Research and Therapeutics (VanCART).