Role of Calcium in Heart Function in Health and Disease

Abstract

In his experiments on isolated frog hearts, Ringer [34] first reported that ``saline solution, to which is added one ten-thousandth part of potassium chloride, makes an excellent circulating fluid in experiments with the detached heart.'' However, in these misleading experiments, the saline solution (0.75 NaCl) was prepared with pipe water contaminated with traces of many inorganic salts including Ca2 +. When Ringer repeated these experiments with all solutions made using distilled water [35], he discovered that Ca2+ has an important role in heart function.