title: Removal of pinned scroll waves in cardiac tissues by electric fields in a generic model of three-dimensional excitable media.
abstract: Spirals or scroll waves pinned to heterogeneities in cardiac tissues may cause lethal arrhythmias. To unpin these life-threatening spiral waves, methods of wave emission from heterogeneities (WEH) induced by low-voltage pulsed DC electric fields (PDCEFs) and circularly polarized electric fields (CPEFs) have been used in two-dimensional (2D) cardiac tissues. Nevertheless, the unpinning of scroll waves in three-dimensional (3D) cardiac systems is much more difficult than that of spiral waves in 2D cardiac systems, and there are few reports on the removal of pinned scroll waves in 3D cardiac tissues by electric fields. In this article, we investigate in detail the removal of pinned scroll waves in a generic model of 3D excitable media using PDCEF, AC electric field (ACEF) and CPEF, respectively. We find that spherical waves can be induced from the heterogeneities by these electric fields in initially quiescent excitable media. However, only CPEF can induce spherical waves with frequencies higher than that of the pinned scroll wave. Such higher-frequency spherical waves induced by CPEF can be used to drive the pinned scroll wave out of the cardiac systems. We hope this remarkable ability of CPEF can provide a better alternative to terminate arrhythmias caused by pinned scroll waves.
authors.affiliation: Zhejiang Institute of Modern Physics and Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
authors.forename: De-Bei
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Information Technology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710062, China.
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, Xi'an Shiyou University, Xi'an 710065, China.|Zhejiang Institute of Modern Physics and Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physical Oceanography and Ocean College, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Jun-Ting
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Zhejiang Institute of Modern Physics and Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000503:physiopathology; D004560:Electricity; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological