Initiation of re-entry in an excitable medium: structural investigation of cardiac tissue using a genetic algorithm |
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Authors: | Scarle S Clayton R H |
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Institution: | Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, Regent Court, 211 Portobello Street, Sheffield S1 4DP, United Kingdom. |
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Abstract: | The detailed mechanisms by which re-entry and ventricular fibrillation are initiated in the heart remain poorly understood because they are difficult to investigate experimentally. We have used a simplified excitable media computational model of action potential propagation to systematically study how re-entry can be produced by diffuse regions of inexcitable tissue. Patterns of excitable and inexcitable tissue were generated using a genetic algorithm. The inexcitable tissue was modeled in two ways: (i) diffusive, electrically connected but inexcitable tissue, or (ii) zero-flux, areas of tissue electrically disconnected in the same way as zero-flux boundary conditions. We were able to evolve patterns of diffuse inexcitable tissue that favored re-entry, but no single structure or pattern emerged. Diffusive inexcitable regions were inherently less arrhythmogenic than zero-flux inexcitable ones. |
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