title: Reentrant arrhythmias and their control in models of mammalian cardiac tissue.
abstract: We use detailed biophysical and simplified models of excitation propagation in heart muscle to study the properties of reentrant arrhythmias. Using a detailed model of excitation combined with a bidomain description of propagation and action of electric current, we have obtained a theoretical estimation for the defibrillation threshold consistent with experimental data. Reentry acts as a spiral wave, propagating around a region of block, the core. A series of properly timed low-voltage stimuli can cause directed "resonant" drift of this block and act as a low-voltage defibrillation strategy. Experimentally observed activation patterns in fibrillating tissue are more complicated than the simplest spiral wave patterns. This is due to complicated geometry, the 3-dimensional nature of the tissue, and its anisotropy and inhomogeneity. However, some fibrillation patterns can be produced by a single reentrant wave, modulated by inhomogeneous tissue properties and Wenckebach frequency division.
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Sciences, Leeds University, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: V N
authors.initials: VN
authors.lastname: Biktashev
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Holden
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013611:Tachycardia, Atrioventricular Nodal Reentry / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000503:physiopathology