Methodologies to Evaluate Simulations of Cardiac Tissue Abnormalities at a Cellular Level

Abstract

Computer Simulations of cardiac wave propagation may be used as a tool towards understanding the mechanisms of cardiac conduction, the nature of various heart diseases, as well as the effect of drugs in cardiac function. Such simulations depend on the ionuc current model adopted, and various such models have been proposed. The exact propagation wavefront thus depends on the ionic model and the tissue properties, being homogeneous or heterogeneous. The latter case, which corresponds to infracted cardiac tissue, is the focus in this work. The ionic current properties and the sodium kinetics on a two-dimensional grid where wavefront rotations around barriers at bifurcation sites take place, are examined in detail and differences in propagation characteristics elicited by using fast or slow fast inward current kinetics such as can be found in the Beeler-Reuter, Luo-Rudy and Ebihara-Johnson models are elaborated.