event
Thursday 06 Dec 2012: Simulating the evolution of scroll waves in human atria
Sanjay Kharche - University of Exeter
Harrison 203 14:00-15:00
The upper smaller chambers of the heart, the atria, have a heterogeneous structure. The evolution of atrial arrhythmia, i.e. persistently rotating electrical waves, is affected by alterations of atrial wall thickness. The treatment of atrial arrhythmia is often by means of electrical cardioversion. Biktashev and others have previously developed the mathematical theory of re-entrant wave resonant drift due to such small perturbations in idealized spatial models. In an ongoing simulation study, the theory is applied to realistic 3D atria. We study the effects of two perturbations: i) spontaneous drifting due to atrial wall thickness variability; and ii) forced drifting due to low energy shocks simulating cardioversion. In the spontaneous drift simulations, we observe the scroll wave to be pinned to, or travel along anatomical features. In the cardioversion simulations, a feedback controlled pacing protocol was seen to be effective.
