Comparison of phenomenological and biophysical cardiac models coupled with heterogenous structures for prediction of electrical activation sequence

The electrical activation sequence of the ventricles follows a complex pattern which ensures an efficient contraction and subsequent blood pumping. Today, electrical therapies are often used to correct those behaviors, although a-priori it is unknown how the activation sequence will change. In this paper, we study changes in the activation pattern using electrical simulations based on both phenomenological and biophysical models. The complex electrophysiological modeling takes into account the cell specific ion kinetic and reaction-diffusion equations for tissue propagation, whereas the simple modeling is based on Eikonal equation. The computational model includes the specialized electrical structures in the ventricles. Simulation outcomes were compared by looking at the local activation times (LAT) and following total activation time (TAT). Results show that the inclusion of a biophysically based conduction system on a phenomenological model reduces the differences with fully biophysical models, requiring short computational times.