Authors Species Characteristics Key findings Brembilla-Perrot et al. [96 ] Human Patients aged >70 years versus younger Decreased AF inducibility due to increased atrial ERP Centurión et al.89 ] Human Patients with paroxysmal AF during sinus rhythm aged >60 years versus younger Greater mean number of abnormal right atrial electrograms defined as ≥100 msec duration and, or showing eight fragmented deflections Roberts-Thomson et al. [87 ] Human Patients aged >60 years versus younger Greater number of complex fractionated electrograms Sakabe et al. [94 ] Human Patients without a history of AF or structural heart disease No relationship between age and inducibility of AF Calcium mishandling El-Armouche et al. [99 ] Human Western blotting used to assess phosphorylation levels of Ca handling proteins in right atrial appendage Hyperphosphorylation of phospholamban could be contributory to leaky ryanodine receptors and thus abnormal calcium handling in chronic AF patients Hove-Madsen et al. [97 ] Human Age > 66 years Higher calcium spark frequency and higher incidence of spontaneous calcium waves in comparison to patients with sinus rhythm Ono et al. [88 ] Rats Old versus young rats Glycolytic inhibition has been shown to result in spontaneous AF due to calcium mishandling and early after depolarisation-induced triggered activity Wongcharoen et al. [90 ] Rabbits Responses of pulmonary vein tissues to rapamycin, FK-506, and ouabain in young and aged rabbits Increased pulmonary vein arrhythmogenesis secondary to ryanodine receptor dysfunction-resultant calcium mis-handling Atrial ERP Kistler et al. [100 ] Human Electrophysiological and electroanatomical studies in 3 age groups (≥60 years, 31–59 years, and ≤30 years) Age-associated electrical and structural remodeling (regional conduction slowing, increase in atrial ERP, impaired sinus node function, conduction delay at crista terminalis, and areas of low voltage) Brembilla-Perot et al. [96 ] Human 734 patients (age 16–85 years, mean 61
15 years) Increased atrial ERP and age >70 years independently predicted reduced AF inducibility Brorson and Olsson [101 ] Human Right atrial monophasic action potentials recorded in 40 healthy males No age correlation Anyukhovsky et al. [92 ] Dogs Young versus old canine atrial Age-related differences in action potential contour, decreased I CaL , and slower conduction of early premature beats Huang et al. [106 ] Rats Adult, middle aged versus aged rats Age-associated prolongation of the monophasic action potential (mAP) and ERP in the right atrium, but a decrease in mAP and ERP in the left atrium, suggesting a potential reentrant mechanism for AF Kojodjojo et al. [107 ] Humans Most study subjects suffered from atrioventricular reentrant arrhythmias, syncope, or palpitations and hence these atria were not “healthy” No change in left atrial ERP with ageing Michelucci et al. [105 ] Humans 17 normal subjects (age range 17–78 years) Age-related increase in right atrial ERP Su et al. [103 ] Rats Adults versus aged rats In response to muscarinic stimulation, ageing-related prolongation of atrial maximum diastolic potential but not of APD Toda [102 ] Rabbit Rabbit ages varied from 2–360 days old Age-related prolongation of APD Ion channel remodelling in ageing and AF
CaL Anyukhovsky et al. [92 ]Canine atria Reduced
CaL
Na Baba et al. [108 ]Canine atria (i) Peak current unchanged at low stimulation frequencies but reduced at stimulation frequencies relevant to AF Wu et al. [110 ] Rabbit atria (ii) Decreased in hyperlipidemic aged rabbits
to Dun et al. [109 ]Canine atrium Increased in the left atrium
KAch Su et al. [103 ]Rat Indirect evidence of increase [104 ]
