Vijay Chauhan

Research Synopsis

Dr. Chauhan has established a productive translational electrophysiology research program supported by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. The program is characterizing cardiac repolarization dynamics in patients with cardiomyopathy as it related to the pathogenesis of lethal ventricular tachyarrhythmias. Although experimental studies suggest that abnormal ventricular repolarization is responsible for ventricular arrhythmias and sudden death, the relevance of cardiac repolarization as a substrate for arrhythmogenesis in humans is less clear. His laboratory is characterizing the spatiotemporal distribution of ventricular repolarization in patients with cardiomyopathy and defining the dynamic range of repolarization in response to physiologic stress that can trigger ventricular arrhythmias. The experiments involve body surface and intracardiac recordings of repolarization under varying physiological conditions. Using linear and nonlinear dynamics, several aspects of cardiac repolarization are quantified including spatiotemporal heterogeneity, restitution, memory and alternans. The knowledge gained from these studies will provide better understanding of the pathogenesis of lethal ventricular arrhythmias in patients with heart disease which may lead to the development of novel antiarrhythmic therapies.