Three-dimensional organization of electrical turbulence in the heart

Three-dimensional organization of electrical turbulence that is induced via the phenomenon of spiral breakup is studied in a computer model of the heart, which includes realistic ventricular geometries and cardiac anisotropy. We find filaments of rotors during the turbulence and study their number and length as a function of the heart size. We perform a dimensional analysis of turbulence.     

具有早期后除极化现象的可激发系统中螺旋波破碎方式研究

在Greenberg-Hasting元胞自动机模型中引入了正常元胞和老化元胞,并规定只有老化元胞存在早期后除极化现象且早期后除极化可以激发其他元胞.在正常元胞和老化元胞均匀分布的情况下,研究了早期后除极化对螺旋波演化行为的影响,重点探讨了早期后除极化导致的螺旋波破碎方式.数值模拟结果表明:早期后除极化在比率约为26.4%的少数情况下不对螺旋波产生影响,在其他情况下则会对螺旋波产生各种影响,包括使螺旋波漫游、漂移、波臂发生形变以及导致螺旋波破碎和消失等.观察到早期后除极化通过传导障碍消失和通过转变为反靶波消失,早期后除极化导致螺旋波破碎有8种方式,包括非对称破缺导致的破碎、对称破缺导致的破碎、同时激发双波导致的破碎、非对称激发导致的破碎、整体传导障碍导致的破碎、整体快速破碎等.分析发现这些螺旋波破碎现象都与早期后除极化产生回火波有关,得到螺旋波破碎的总比率通常约为13.8%,但是在适当选取老化元胞密度和早期后除极化的激发下,螺旋波破碎比率可达到32.4%,这些结果与心律失常致死的统计结果基本一致,本文对产生这些现象的物理机理做了简要分析.     

Termination of spiral wave breakup in a Fitzhugh-Nagumo model via short and long duration stimuli

Rotating spiral waves have been observed in a variety of nonlinear biological and physical systems. Spiral waves are found in excitable and oscillatory systems and can be stationary, meander, or even degenerate into multiple unstable rotating waves (a process called "spiral wave breakup"). In the heart, spiral wave breakup is thought to be the underlying mechanism of cardiac fibrillation. The spatiotemporal complexity of multiple unstable spiral waves is difficult to control or terminate. Here, the mechanisms of the termination of spiral wave breakup in response to global stimulation are investigated. A modified Fitzhugh-Nagumo model was used to represent cellular kinetics to study the role of the fast (activation) and slow (recovery) variables. This simplified model allows a theoretical analysis of the termination of spiral wave breakup via both short and long duration pulses. Simulations were carried out in both two-dimensional sheets and in a three-dimensional geometry of the heart ventricles. The short duration pulses affected only the fast variable and acted to reset wave propagation. Monophasic pulses excited tissue ahead of the wave front thus reducing the amount of excitable tissue. Biphasic shocks did the same, but they also acted to generate new wave fronts from the pre-existing wave tails by making some active regions excitable. Thus, if the short duration stimuli were strong enough, they acted to fill in excitable tissue via propagating wave fronts and terminated all activity. The long duration wave forms were selected such that they had a frequency spectrum similar to that of the pseudoelectrocardiograms recorded during fibrillation. These long duration wave forms affected both the recovery and activation variables, and the mechanism of unstable multiple spiral wave termination was different compared to the short duration wave forms. If the long duration stimuli were strong enough, they acted to alter the "state" (i.e., combination of fast and slow variables) of the tissue throughout 1.5 cycles, thus "conditioning" the tissue such that by the end of the stimuli almost no excitable tissue remained. The peak current, total energy, and average power of stimuli required to terminate spiral wave breakup were less for the long duration wave forms compared to the short duration wave forms. In addition, closed loop feedback via stimulation with a wave form that was the difference of the pseudoelectrocardiogram and a strongly periodic chaotic signal was successful at terminating spiral wave breakup. These results suggest that it may be possible to improve cardiac defibrillation efficacy by using long duration wave forms to affect recovery variables in the heart as opposed to the traditional brief duration wave forms that act only on the fast variables. (c) 2002 American Institute of Physics.     

Filament instability and rotational tissue anisotropy: A numerical study using detailed cardiac models

The role of cardiac tissue anisotropy in the breakup of vortex filaments is studied using two detailed cardiac models. In the Beeler-Reuter model, modified to produce stable spiral waves in two dimensions, we find that anisotropy can destabilize a vortex filament in a parallelepipedal slab of tissue. The mechanisms of the instability are similar to the ones reported in previous work on a simplified cardiac model by Fenton and Karma [Chaos 8, 20 (1998)]. In the Luo-Rudy model, also modified to produce stable spiral waves in two dimensions, we find that anisotropy does not destabilize filaments. A possible explanation for this model-dependent behavior based on spiral tip trajectories is offered. (c) 2001 American Institute of Physics.     

心脏老化和收缩对螺旋波动力学的影响研究

通过用Greenberg-Hasting元胞自动机模型的邻域半径和激发阈值的增大来模拟心脏老化,用邻域半径交替变化代替心脏收缩与舒张,数值模拟研究了心脏老化和有规律收缩对螺旋波动力学的影响.结果表明:心脏老化会导致螺旋波漫游和不能产生螺旋波,既可以使螺旋波波长缩短和螺旋波周期维持不变,也可以使螺旋波的波长变长和周期增大;在心脏老化和有规律收缩共同作用下,系统可出现不同形状的螺旋波斑图、螺旋波发生破碎和消失等现象,给出了心力衰竭、心颤、死亡的发生概率,这些结果与流行病相关调查结果基本符合.     

螺旋波动力学性质的元胞自动机有向小世界网络研究

以Greenberg-Hastings激发介质元胞自动机模型为基础,研究了有向小世界网络中重新连接概率p对螺旋波动力学行为的影响.对于在规则网络下的稳定螺旋波,施加有向小世界网络后发现:当p值较小时,原本稳定的螺旋波仍保持其稳定性.随着p的增大,先后观察到螺旋波持续漫游、螺旋波断裂以及螺旋波消失等现象.通过监测系统的激发比率,发现以上现象的产生源于介质激发性随p的增大而降低.同时还发现元胞周期的变化也与p有关. 关键词： 元胞自动机 螺旋波 激发介质 有向小世界网络     

Spiral wave generation in heterogeneous excitable media

As the coupling in a heterogeneous excitable medium is reduced, three different types of behavior are encountered: plane waves propagate without breaking up, plane waves break up into spiral waves, and plane waves block. We illustrate these phenomena in monolayers of chick embryonic heart cells using calcium sensitive fluorescent dyes. Following the addition of heptanol, an agent that reduces the electrical coupling between cells, we observe breakup of spiral waves. These results are modeled in a heterogeneous cellular automaton model in which the neighborhood of interaction is modified.     

Breakup of spiral wave under different boundary conditions

In this paper, we investigate the breakup of spiral wave under no-flux, periodic and Dirichlet boundary conditions respectively. When the parameter \varepsilon is close to a critical value for Doppler-induced wave breakup, the instability of the system caused by the boundary effect occurs in the last two cases, resulting in the breakup of spiral wave near the boundary. With our defined average order measure of spiral wave (AOMSW), we quantify the degree of order of the system when the boundary-induced breakup of spiral wave happens. By analysing the AOMSW and outer diameter R of the spiral tip orbit, it is easy to find that this boundary effect is correlated with large values of R, especially under the Dirichlet boundary condition. This correlation is nonlinear, so the AOMSW sometimes oscillates with the variation of \varepsilon.     

心肌组织机械形变的元胞自动机模拟

采用Greenberg-Hastings元胞自动机模型研究机械形变对心肌组织中螺旋波动力学行为的影响.数值模拟表明：对于规则网格下的稳定螺旋波,在生理性机械形变作用下,螺旋波发生漫游但不破碎;在病理性机械形变作用下,螺旋波会发生持续漫游、漫游后消失和破碎进入螺旋波湍流态三种变化.通过对比发现机械形变的振幅变化率对螺旋波的影响较大,而机械形变的角频率对螺旋波的影响较小.结合数值模拟,对心前区受到猛烈撞击会出现心颤致死及耐力运动员在发生心动过速后比一般人员更容易恢复正常进行解释.     

Development and transition of spiral wave in the coupled Hindmarsh--Rose neurons in two-dimensional space

The dynamics and the transition of spiral waves in the coupled Hindmarsh--Rose (H--R) neurons in two-dimensional space are investigated in the paper. It is found that the spiral wave can be induced and developed in the coupled HR neurons in two-dimensional space, with appropriate initial values and a parameter region given. However, the spiral wave could encounter instability when the intensity of the external current reaches a threshold value of 1.945. The transition of spiral wave is found to be affected by coupling intensity D and bifurcation parameter r. The spiral wave becomes sparse as the coupling intensity increases, while the spiral wave is eliminated and the whole neuronal system becomes homogeneous as the bifurcation parameter increases to a certain threshold value. Then the coupling action of the four sub-adjacent neurons, which is described by coupling coefficient D’, is also considered, and it is found that the spiral wave begins to breakup due to the introduced coupling action from the sub-adjacent neurons (or sites) and together with the coupling action of the nearest-neighbour neurons, which is described by the coupling intensity D.     

热敏神经元网络中螺旋波死亡和破裂的数值模拟

实验发现大脑皮层内出现螺旋波且螺旋波对神经元电信号传递有积极作用.利用细胞网络方法从对大脑皮层观察到的螺旋波进行数值模拟.以包含温度因子的热敏神经元模型在二维空间构造规则网络,研究了神经元膜片温度参数对神经元网络中螺旋波演化影响;定义了一类统计同步因子来刻画温度因子引起螺旋波相变(破裂和死亡)的临界条件.发现在规则网络下,当温度超过一定值后螺旋波会死亡和消失而导致整个网络达到均匀同步;在考虑了弱通道噪声情况下,螺旋波温度超越一定临界值则引起螺旋波的破裂.进一步分析了暂时性发烧昏迷的可能机制在于神经系统某些功能区螺旋波传播电信号的中断.     

Mechanism for spiral wave breakup in excitable and oscillatory media

We study spiral wave breakup using a Fitzhugh-Nagumo-type system. We find that spiral wave breakup can occur near the core or far from it in both excitable and oscillatory regimes. There is a faraway breakup scenario in both excitable and oscillatory media that depends on long wavelength modulation modes. We observed three distinct scenarios, including one that involves breakup that does not develop into turbulence. However, we find that the mechanisms behind these three scenarios are the same: they are caused by the interaction between the dispersion relation and the asymptotic behavior of the modulation mode. The difference in phenomenology is due to the asymptotic behavior of the modulation mode.     

Spiral breakup in an array of coupled cells: the role of the intercellular conductance

We study numerically how the intercellular conductance affects the process of spiral breakup in an array of coupled excitable cells. The cell dynamics are described by the Aliev-Panfilov model, and the intercellular connection is made via Ohmic elements. We find that decreasing intercellular conductance can prevent the breaking up of a spiral wave into a complex spatiotemporal pattern. We study the mechanism of this effect and show that the breakup disappears because of increasing the diastolic interval of an initial spiral wave.     

Breakup of Spiral Waves in Coupled Hindmarsh--Rose Neurons

Breakup of spiral wave in the Hindmarsh-Rose neurons with nearest-neighbour couplings is reported. Appropriate initial values and parameter regions are selected to develop a stable spiral wave and then the Gaussian coloured noise with different intensities and correlation times is imposed on all neurons to study the breakup of spiral wave, respectively. Based on the mean field theory, the statistical factor of synchronization is defined to analyse the evolution of spiral wave. It is found that the stable rotating spiral wave encounters breakup with increasing intensity of Gaussian coloured noise or decreasing correlation time to certain threshold.     

Controlling Spiral Dynamics in Excitable Media by a Weakly Localized Pacing

Spiral dynamics controlled by a weakly localized pacing around the spiral tip is investigated. Numerical simulations show two distinct characteristics when the pacing is applied with the weak amplitude for suitable frequencies： for a rigidly .rotating spiral, a transition from rigid rotation to meandering motion is observed, and for unstable spiral waves, spiral breakup can be prevented. Successfully preventing spiral breakup is relevant to the modulation of the tip trajectory induced by a localized pacing.     

Dynamics of Spiral Waves Induced by Periodic Mechanical Deformation with Phase Difference

The dynamics of spiral waves under the influences of periodic mechanical deformation are studied. Here, the mechanical deformation propagating along the medium with phase differences are considered. It is found that weak mechanical deformation may lead to resonant drift of spiral waves. The drift direction and velocity can be changed by the wave length of the deformation. Strong mechanical deformation may result in breakup of spiral waves. The characteristics of breakup are discussed. The critical amplitudes are determined by two factors, i.e. the wave length and frequency of the periodic mechanical deformation. When the wave length of mechanical deformation is comparable to the spiral wave, simulation shows that the critical amplitude is substantially increased. As the frequency of the mechanical deformation is around 1.5 times of the spiral wave, the critical amplitudes are minimal.     

From local to global spatiotemporal chaos in a cardiac tissue model

Two kinds of chaos can occur in cardiac tissue, chaotic meander of a single intact spiral wave and chaotic spiral wave breakup. We studied these behaviors in a model of two-dimensional cardiac tissue based on the Luo-Rudy I action potential model. In the chaotic meander regime, chaos is spatially localized to the core of the spiral wave. When persistent spiral wave breakup occurs, there is a transition from local to global spatiotemporal chaos.     

Electrical alternans and spiral wave breakup in cardiac tissue

This paper reports the results of a theoretical investigation of spiral wave breakup in model equations of action potential propagation in cardiac tissue. A general formulation of these equations is described in which arbitrary experimentally determined restitution and dispersion curves can in principle be fitted. Spiral wave behavior is studied in two-dimension as a function of a parameter Re which controls the steepness of the restitution curve at short diastolic intervals. Spiral breakup is found to occur when the minimum period T(min), below which a periodically stimulated tissue exhibits alternans in action potential duration, exceeds by a finite amount the spiral rotation period T(S). At this point, oscillations in action potential duration are of sufficiently large amplitude to cause a spontaneous conduction block to form along the wavefront. The latter occurs closer to the initiation point of reentry (spiral tip) with increasing steepness and, hence, in smaller tissue sizes. Spiral breakup leads to a spatially disorganized wave activity which is always transient, except for tissues larger than some minimum size and within a very narrow range of Re which increases with dispersion.     

Spontaneous spiral wave breakup caused by pinning to the tissue defect

The work presents a mechanism of spiral wave initiation due to the specific boundary conditions on a border of cardiac tissue defect. There are known scenarios when anatomical or functional defects in cardiac tissue may provoke the spiral wave origination, including unidirectional blockage while passing through the narrow gates, bent over critical curvature wave fronts, inhomogeneous recovery of the tissue, etc. We show a new scenario of spiral wave breakup on a small defect, which is unexcitable but permeable for ionic currents supporting the excitation wave. It was believed that such defects stabilize the rotating wave; however, as shown, instead of stabilizing it leads to the spiral breakup and subsequent multiplication of the rotating waves.     

Complex spiral wave dynamics in a spatially distributed ionic model of cardiac electrical activity

This study presents computations and analysis of the dynamics of reentrant spiral waves in a realistic model of cardiac electrical activity, incorporating the Beeler-Reuter equations into a two-dimensional cable model. In this medium, spiral waves spontaneously break up, but may be stabilized by shortening the excitation pulse duration through an acceleration of the dynamics of the calcium current. We describe the breakup of reentrant waves based on the presence of slow recovery fronts within the medium. This concept is introduced using examples from pulse circulation around a ring and extended to two-dimensional propagation. We define properties of the restitution and dispersion relations that are associated with slow recovery fronts and promote spiral breakup. The role of slow recovery fronts is illustrated with concrete examples from numerical simulations. (c) 1996 American Institute of Physics.