title: Dynamics of conduction blocks in a model of paced cardiac tissue.
abstract: We study numerically the dynamics of conduction blocks using a detailed electrophysiological model. We find that this dynamics depends critically on the size of the paced region. Small pacing regions lead to stationary conduction blocks while larger pacing regions can lead to conduction blocks that travel periodically towards the pacing region. We show that this size-dependence dynamics can lead to a novel arrhythmogenic mechanism. Furthermore, we show that the essential phenomena can be captured in a much simpler coupled-map model.
authors.affiliation: Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, University of California-San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
authors.forename: Hervé
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Henry
authors.forename: Wouter-Jan
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Rappel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001683:Biological Clocks; D002304:Cardiac Pacing, Artificial / Q000379:methods*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006327:Heart Block / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006329:Heart Conduction System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009431:Neural Conduction; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy