Defibrillation via the elimination of spiral turbulence in a model for ventricular fibrillation.
Ventricular fibrillation, the major reason behind sudden cardiac death, is turbulent cardiac electrical activity in which rapid, irregular disturbances in the spatiotemporal electrical activation of the heart make it incapable of any concerted pumping action. Methods of controlling ventricular fibrillation include electrical defibrillation as well as injected medication. Electrical defibrillation, though widely used, involves subjecting the whole heart to massive, and often counterproductive, electrical shocks. We propose a defibrillation method that uses a very low-amplitude shock (of order mV) applied for a brief duration (of order 100 ms) and over a coarse mesh of lines on our model ventricle.
Sinha
S
S
Centre for Condensed Matter Theory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, India.
Pande
A
A
Pandit
R
R
D017147:Defibrillators, Implantable; D004554:Electric Countershock / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000628:therapy*