This book focuses on established cardiovascular principles and highlights some of the progress achieved by recent research in the cardiovascular field. The authors report the basic concepts related to the functioning of the cardiovascular system necessary for medical students to understand. To foster learning, in each chapter the fundamental points are highlighted in italics and/or bold. In addition, we have added boxes that contain some more detailed information about physiological mechanisms or clinical aspects are analyzed and described in greater detail. The book describes the structure and function of the heart and vascular system for the reader to understand how the cardiovascular system responds in both health and disease. The book conveys a unified vision of the function of the heart and the vascular system, explaining the complexity of the system that goes far beyond the integrated connection between preload, afterload and cardiac contractility. The endothelium covers the internal part of the whole cardiovascular system; therefore, endothelial physiology is treated in several chapters. Given the importance of coronary circulation in cardiac pathophysiology, this special circulation is described in detail and enriched with the most up-to-date information. Several paragraphs and boxes on clinical implications are dedicated to the principles of electrophysiology and the electrocardiogram. A space is also dedicated to myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury and cardioprotective procedures. The book is written in a linear and simple language without compromising the scientific rigor of the various topics covered.
Penna, Claudia: - Claudia Penna, BSc.D., Ph.D was born in Asti, Italy, in 1967. She is an associate professor of Physiology at University of Turin (Italy), Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences. She is also member of the National Institute for Cardiovascular Researches (Bologna, Italy). Degrees awarded: BSc, University of Turin (Italy), Thesis topic: Effect of venom in the isolated heart, 1991. Specialist in Clinical Pathology, University of Turin (Italy), thesis topic: Modulation of cardiac current by Nitric Oxide, 1995; PhD, University of Turin (Italy), thesis topic: Hyperaemic response and Ischemic Preconditioning, 2000. Research experience/other activities: coronary circulation pathophysiology and cardioprotection. She is member of Italian Society of Physiology, Italian Society of Car- diology, European Society of Cardiology, Italian Society of Cardiovascular Research. She is in the Editorial Board of international journals and is Associate Editor of Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity. She published over 100 publications on impacted journals, including invited scientific reviews, and she is co-author of several book chapters.
Rastaldo, Raffaella: - "Raffaella Rastaldo, MSc, PhD was born in Cigliano (VC), in 1970. She is an associate professor of Physiology at University of Turin, (Italy), School of Medicine. Degrees awarded: Degree in Biological Sciences (MSc equivalent), Univer- sity of Turin (Italy) in 1998. Thesis topic: Endothelial Physiology. PhD in Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Turin (Italy) in 2003. Thesis: Coronary Pathophysiology. Post-doc fellow at the Medicine Department - Cardiovascular Research Institute - New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY (USA). Research experience/other activities: her research activity is focused on cardiac regeneration using innovative nanomaterial as well as on cardiopro- tection against the ischemia-reperfusion injury in particular using endogenous peptide. She is a member of the Italian Society for Cardiovascular Research since 2007 and of the Italian Society of Physiology since 2008. She is a reviewer of various prestigious international journal and a member of the Editorial Board of BioMed Research International. She published over 40 publications on PubMed indexed journals, several scientific reviews and book chapters."
