Fibrillation induced at powerline current levels

Because little information is available on short-duration high-current fibrillation, current levels between 1 and 50 A were used to induce ventricular fibrillation in hogs. Application times ranged between 16 nms and 3 s. Fibrillation was only produced when currents were applied during the T-wave period of the cardiac cycle. However, only 50% of the current application during the T-wave caused fibrillation. The total body resistance of the hogs was measured at the high voltages and currents. The average resistance for 90 current applications was 284 Omega . Trends in the data show that the total resistance decreases for increasing voltage, for increasing electrode size, and for current applications following the first current application.