Minimal cellular automata model of cardiac cells: initiation of reentrant activation from a single stimulation site

Minimal complexity cellular automata models are used to demonstrate that a structurally based spatial dispersion of refractory properties is unnecessary for initiating and maintaining reentrant activity in cardiac tissue. Rather, a spatial distribution of refractory properties can be generated functionally by the propagation of an excitatory wavefront. The resultant distribution of refractory states can be exploited to produce arrhythmic events by using a spatially separate stimulation site. Most importantly, using a two-dimensional model with anisotropic conduction and asymmetric stimulus-response latency, self-sustaining reentry can be generated from a single site