title: On a mechanism of cardiac electrical stability. The fractal hypothesis.
abstract: Electrical activation of the ventricles via the His-Purkinje system is represented on the body surface by a waveform with a broad range of frequency components. We speculate that this process is mediated by current flow through a fractal-like conduction network and therefore that the broadband spectrum of the depolarization waveform should be scaled as a power-law distribution. The prediction is confirmed by Fourier analysis of electrocardiographic data from healthy men. This observation suggests a new dynamical link between nonlinear (fractal) structure and nonlinear function in a stable physiologic system.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002036:Bundle of His / Q000502:physiology; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D006321:Heart / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008954:Models, Biological; D011690:Purkinje Fibers / Q000502:physiology; D016276:Ventricular Function