Fig. 1.

Mild hypothermia (MH) prevents conduction failure during ischemia. A: transmural conduction maps are shown with pacing from the endocardium. Top, conduction slowing and epicardial conduction block (red line) seen under control (CT) temperature. Note the development of reentrant conduction (arrow), which is expected to increase arrhythmia susceptibility. Bottom, MH attenuated conduction slowing and block during ischemia. B: summary data of preparations with conduction block (n = 6, P = 0.014 by χ²-test at 30-min ischemia). C: summary data of conduction velocity during ischemia. MH attenuated conduction slowing over ischemia time compared with CT (n = 6, P = 0.01 by repeated-measures ANOVA).