Title :
Stability of scroll excitation waves in human atria during fibrillation: A computational study
Author :
Kharche, S. ; Garratt, CJ ; Holden, AV ; Zhang, H.
Author_Institution :
Sch. of Phys. & Astron., Univ. of Manchester, Manchester
fDate :
Sept. 30 2007-Oct. 3 2007
Abstract :
We computationally evaluated the functional roles of atrial fibrillation induced electrical remodelling (AFER) on human atrial electrical excitations at cellular, tissue and whole organ levels. Our results show that AFER produced a dramatic reduction in action potential duration, slowing down of intra-atrial conduction, decrease in tissuepsilas temporal vulnerability, but remarkable increase in tissuepsilas spatial vulnerability to arrythmogenesis in response to premature stimulus. It also increased stability of re-entrant waves in 2D and 3D models. With AFER, the rate of atrial excitation was much higher and re-entry degenerated into persistent spatio-temporal chaos. In conclusion, our simulations substantiate a link between AFER and persistence of AF. This study provided a mechanistic insight into the mechanisms underlying the perpetuation and maintenance of AF.
Keywords :
bioelectric phenomena; cardiology; cellular biophysics; chaos; AFER; action potential duration; atrial fibrillation induced electrical remodelling; atrial fibrillation maintenance; atrial fibrillation perpetuation; cellular level atrial excitation; human atria fibrillation; human atrial electrical excitations; intra-atrial conduction; reentrant wave stability; scroll excitation wave stability; spatial arrythmogenesis vulnerability; temporal arrythmogenesis vulnerability; tissue level atrial excitation; whole organ level atrial excitation; Astronomy; Atrial fibrillation; Biology computing; Biomembranes; Humans; Indium tin oxide; Physics computing; Stability; Steady-state; Systems biology;
Conference_Titel :
Computers in Cardiology, 2007
Conference_Location :
Durham, NC
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-2533-4
Electronic_ISBN :
0276-6547
DOI :
10.1109/CIC.2007.4745477