title: Electrical wave propagation in an anisotropic model of the left ventricle based on analytical description of cardiac architecture.
abstract: We develop a numerical approach based on our recent analytical model of fiber structure in the left ventricle of the human heart. A special curvilinear coordinate system is proposed to analytically include realistic ventricular shape and myofiber directions. With this anatomical model, electrophysiological simulations can be performed on a rectangular coordinate grid. We apply our method to study the effect of fiber rotation and electrical anisotropy of cardiac tissue (i.e., the ratio of the conductivity coefficients along and across the myocardial fibers) on wave propagation using the ten Tusscher-Panfilov (2006) ionic model for human ventricular cells. We show that fiber rotation increases the speed of cardiac activation and attenuates the effects of anisotropy. Our results show that the fiber rotation in the heart is an important factor underlying cardiac excitation. We also study scroll wave dynamics in our model and show the drift of a scroll wave filament whose velocity depends non-monotonically on the fiber rotation angle; the period of scroll wave rotation decreases with an increase of the fiber rotation angle; an increase in anisotropy may cause the breakup of a scroll wave, similar to the mother rotor mechanism of ventricular fibrillation.
authors.affiliation: Function Approximation Theory Department, Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics, Ekaterinburg, Russia; Laboratory of Mathematical Physiology, Institute of Immunology and Physiology, Ekaterinburg, Russia; Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Sergey F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Pravdin
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dierckx
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Mathematical Physiology, Institute of Immunology and Physiology, Ekaterinburg, Russia; Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia.
authors.forename: Leonid B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Katsnelson
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Mathematical Physiology, Institute of Immunology and Physiology, Ekaterinburg, Russia; Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Solovyova
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Mathematical Physiology, Institute of Immunology and Physiology, Ekaterinburg, Russia; Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia.
authors.forename: Vladimir S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Markhasin
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (State University), Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region, Russia.
authors.forename: Alexander V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Panfilov
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D016880:Anisotropy; D002320:Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D004699:Endocardium / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D006321:Heart / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000502:physiology*; D010496:Pericardium / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D012399:Rotation; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left / Q000502:physiology*