The cardiac system represents one of the most exciting challenges to human ingenuity. Critical to our survival, it consists of a tantalizing array of interacting phenomena, from ionic microscopic transport, membrane channels and receptors through cellular metabolism, energy production to fiber mechanics, microcirculation, electrical activation to the global, clinically observed, function, which is measured by pressure, volume, coronary flow, heart rate, shape changes and responds to imposed loads and pharmaceutical challenges. It is a complex interdisciplinary system requiring the joint...

The cardiac system represents one of the most exciting challenges to human ingenuity. Critical to our survival, it consists of a tantalizing array of interacting phenomena, from ionic microscopic transport, membrane channels and receptors through cellular metabolism, energy production to fiber mechanics, microcirculation, electrical activation to the global, clinically observed, function, which is measured by pressure, volume, coronary flow, heart rate, shape changes and responds to imposed loads and pharmaceutical challenges. It is a complex interdisciplinary system requiring the joint...