The ATP-sensitive potassium channel (K_ATP) was discovered in 1983. Since then, an enormous amount of research has been undertaken to characterize it in detail. This volume consolidates both the current knowledge and most recent advances on the subject, and its relationship to myocardial protection. To this end, the editors have assembled investigators at the forefront of ongoing basic and clinical research to provide scholarly and candid comments concerning each of the pertinent issues, including: a comprehensive review of the biology of the channel with respect to the structure-activity relationship as well as overall chemistry of the channel; the role of opening this channel and its effect on smooth muscle (covering both the effects on myocardial stunning and its ability to protect against myocardial infarction); the relationship of K_ATP channel opening and the protection to the myocardium afforded by the phenomenon of ischemic preconditioning; the relationship between the K_ATP channel and electrophysiological consequences with specific reference to arrhythmogenicity; and the clinical implications of the use of agents that mimic the opening of this channel, with reference to its protective nature and its use in the treatment of angina.
Audience: Clinicians and basic scientists who have a direct interest in the K_ATP channel as well as those groups who are interested in the entire concept of myocardial protection and its relationship to academic and clinical medicine.