Curdled uncoupling, disparate activation and fractionated electrograms in a computer model of anisotropic ventricular myocardium

The implementation of a model of conduction in a heterogeneously uncoupled sheet of ventricular myocardium, with the pattern of uncoupling defined by a random, curdled fractal, is discussed. The authors tested the hypothesis that the greater the degree of cellular uncoupling, the greater the inhomogeneity of activation and the more abnormal the extracellular electrograms. They modeled propagation in a grid of resistively coupled cells. Resistors were assigned to produce a curdled pattern. A parameter relating the degree with which coupling resistance decorrelated with distance served to quantitate heterogeneous uncoupling. Heterogeneous activation and abnormal extracellular electrograms are directly related to the extent to which cell-to-cell electrical continuity is disrupted