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Nature Medicine 9, 993 - 994 (2003)
doi:10.1038/nm0803-993

Sealing the leak, healing the heart

Patrick Most1 & Walter J Koch2

  1. Patrick Most is in the Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine III, University of Heidelberg, Bergheimerstrasse 58, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany
  2. Walter J. Koch is in the Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Box 2606, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA. e-mail: koch0002@mc.duke.edu


Stabilization of the cardiac ryanodine receptor may represent a new concept in treating sudden cardiac death in several heart disorders.


Sudden cardiac death occurs mostly in patients suffering from heart failure, but also strikes apparently healthy individuals without known genetic or acquired cardiac abnormalities. Such sudden deaths account for about half of all fatalities from cardiovascular diseases.