ABSTRACT
Six years aer Lathers developed two dierent animal models to study the role of the autonomic nervous system in arrhythmias and death due to digitalis toxicity and coronary occlusion (Lathers et al. 1974b, 1977a, 1977b; Lathers 1980a, 1981a; Lathers and Roberts 1980; Lathers 2010, Chapters 25 and 27, this book; Lathers et al. 2010a, Chapter 1, this book; Lathers and Levin 2010, Chapter 33, this book), these animal models were modi-ed to study epileptogenic activity and autonomic cardiac neural discharge in a new animal model in collaboration with Dr. Schraeder to explore the role of neurogenic cardiac arrhythmias in sudden unexplained death in epilepsy (SUDEP) (Lathers and Schraeder 1982; Schraeder and Lathers 1983). Our unique model was designed to examine autonomic cardiac neural discharge and arrhythmias and/or death associated with epileptogenic activity since paroxysmal autonomic dysfunction is one possible explanation for SUDEP. Our thinking was, in part, based on the ndings of Terrence et al. (1975), who listed three possible causes of SUDEP and noted one postmortem nding (Table 28.1).
