Control of chaotic heart conditions using synchronization

Deviation from the normal heart rhythm (arrhythmia) is sometimes life threatening. Fibrillation is a dangerous type of arrhythmia. Once started it can lead to death if left uncontrolled. Severe irregularity in heartbeats means that the heart becomes chaotic. To retain its normal pace, defibrillators and/or pacemakers are usually used. In this paper, synchronization using an artificial sensing system is suggested. A mathematical model comprising a set of nonlinear differential equations is used to construct a synchronization scheme that is capable of enforcing normal heart rhythm. Simulation results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed technique in enforcing the heart to reassume a structurally stable limit cycle state. Moreover, to confirm the results, a nonlinear equivalent circuit representing the describing equations has been designed and tested. Spice simulations results have shown good agreement with those obtained from the mathematical model. The suggested system is applicable to all heart arrhythmia including fibrillation, bradycardia and even cardiac arrest so that it can lead to the development of future smart clinical pacemakers.