Spherical topology in cardiac simulations.
Computational simulations of the electrodynamics of cardiac fibrillation yield a great deal of useful data and provide a framework for theoretical explanations of heart behavior. Extending the application of these mathematical models to defibrillation studies requires that a simulation should sustain fibrillation without defibrillation intervention. In accordance with the critical mass hypothesis, the simulated tissue should be of a large enough size. The choice of biperiodic boundary conditions sustains fibrillation for a longer duration than no-flux boundary conditions for a given area, and so is commonly invoked. Here, we show how this leads to a boundary condition artifact that may complicate the analysis of defibrillation efficacy; we implement an alternative coordinate scheme that utilizes spherical shell topology and mitigates singularities in the Laplacian found with the usual spherical curvilinear coordinate system.
Department of Physics, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan 48309.
Steffan
S
Puwal
Bradley J
BJ
Roth
David
D
Garfinkle