The Dip in the Anodal Strength-Interval Curve in Cardiac Tissue

POSTER

Abstract

Heart disease -- specifically ventricular fibrillation -- is the leading cause of death in the United States. The most common treatment for this lethal arrhythmia is defibrillation: application of a strong electrical shock that resets the heart to its normal rhythm. The goal of this project is to obtain a better understanding of how anodal (hyperpolarizing) shocks affect the heart by using numerical simulations. To accomplish this goal, we will test four hypotheses to find the response of refractory tissue to an anodal shock. We will use bidomain model; the state-of-the-art mathematical description of how cardiac tissue responds to an electric shock. The innovative feature of this proposal is to integrate the bidomain model with an ion channel model (Luo-Rudy model, 1994) that includes intracellular calcium dynamics to get a detailed calculation of the mechanism of the excitation and to understand the electrical behavior of the heart, which is important for pacing and defibrillation.

Authors

  • Sunil Kandel

    Oakland University

  • Oleg Popov

    Miami University, Chemistry Department, Penn State Univ., University Park, PA 16802, unaffiliated, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Ohio State University Columbus, OH 43210, Department of Physics, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, University of Cincinnati, Miami University of Ohio, University of Michigan, University of Notre Dame, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Wayne State University, University of Tennessee, National Technical University of Athens, The University of Tennessee, Kettering Univeristy, University of Michigan-Dearborn, FNAL, Harvard University, California State University, Department of Physics, Kettering University, Flint, Michigan, Department of Natural Sciences, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Applied Sciences Inc., Cedarville, Ohio, Oakland University, University of Stockholm, Arizona State University