Abstract

A Fourier transform method is developed for solving the bidomain coupled differential equations governing the intracellular and extracellular potentials on a finite sheet of cardiac cells undergoing stimulation. The spectral formulation converts the system of differential equations into a "diagonal" system of algebraic equations. Solving the algebraic equations directly and taking the inverse transform of the potentials proved numerically less expensive than solving the coupled differential equations by means of traditional numerical techniques, such as finite differences; the comparison between the computer execution times showed that the Fourier transform method was about 40 times faster than the finite difference method. By application of the Fourier transform method, transmembrane potential distributions in the two-dimensional myocardial slice were calculated. For a tissue characterized by a ratio of the intra- to extracellular conductivities that is different in all principal directions, the transmembrane potential distribution exhibits a rather complicated geometrical pattern. The influence of the different anisotropy ratios, the finite tissue size, and the stimuli configuration on the pattern of membrane polarization is investigated.