Paroxysmal starting and stopping of circulating waves in excitable media.
Levels of intracellular Ca2+ were monitored using fluorescence from Ca2+-sensitive dyes in chick embryonic heart cells cultured in an annular geometry. There was spontaneous starting and stopping of reentrant waves of activity. The results are modeled using modified FitzHugh-Nagumo equations representing pacemakers embedded in a conducting medium. These results provide a potential mechanism for spontaneous abnormal cardiac rhythms in which there are rapid heart beats (tachycardias) that repetitively start and stop.
Nagai
Y
Y
Centre for Nonlinear Dynamics in Physiology and Medicine, 3655 Drummond Street, Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1Y6 Canada.
González
H
H
Shrier
A
A
Glass
L
L
D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D001683:Biological Clocks; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D002642:Chick Embryo; D046508:Culture Techniques; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006321:Heart / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009206:Myocardium / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D013614:Tachycardia, Paroxysmal / Q000503:physiopathology*
D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D002118:Calcium