Dynamics of conduction blocks in a model of paced cardiac tissue

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2005 May;71(5 Pt 1):051911. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.71.051911. Epub 2005 May 31.

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.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biological Clocks*
  • Cardiac Pacing, Artificial / methods*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Heart Block / physiopathology*
  • Heart Conduction System / physiopathology*
  • Humans
  • Models, Cardiovascular*
  • Models, Neurological*
  • Neural Conduction*
  • Ventricular Fibrillation / physiopathology*
  • Ventricular Fibrillation / therapy