Study of the mechanisms of arrhythmias in an anatomical computer model of human atria

Author

Virag, N. ; Blanc, O. ; Vesin, J.-M. ; Koerfer, J. ; Kappenberger, L.

Author_Institution

Signal Process. Lab., Swiss Fed. Inst. of Technol., Lausanne, Switzerland

fYear

1999

fDate

6/21/1905 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

113

Lastpage

116

Abstract

Atrial fibrillation is the most frequent arrhythmia, provoking discomfort, heart failure and embolism. Based on a 20 heterogeneous and anisotropic model of cardiac tissue using the Beeler-Reuter and the Luo-Rudy models, a realistic 30 anatomical computer model of human atria containing about 250000 cardiac cells has been designed. The simulated size is 3 cm×3 cm×7 cm and holes of appropriate size have been placed for the veins and the valves. Using a programmed stimulation protocol similar to those of clinical electrophysiological studies, sustained atrial flutter with a periodic pattern has been induced as well as atrial fibrillation with a random pattern containing up to 6 independent wavelets. This virtual atrium can reproduce electrophysiological observations made in humans but with the advantage of showing details difficult to study in nature and of being reproducible

Keywords

bioelectric phenomena; cardiology; cellular biophysics; digital simulation; medical computing; physiological models; 3 cm; 7 cm; Beeler-Reuter model; Luo-Rudy model; anatomical computer model; cardiac arrhythmias mechanisms; cardiac electrophysiology; discomfort; embolism; heart failure; heterogeneous anisotropic cardiac tissue model; human atria; valves; veins; Anisotropic magnetoresistance; Biomembranes; Cardiac tissue; Cardiology; Computational modeling; Computer simulation; Conductivity; Heart; Humans; Solid modeling;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Computers in Cardiology, 1999

Conference_Location

Hannover

ISSN

0276-6547

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5614-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CIC.1999.825919

Filename

825919