Search

This work is dedicated to the simulation of full cycles of the electrical activity of the heart and the corresponding body surface potential. The model is based on a realistic torso and heart anatomy, including ventricles and atria. One of the specificities of our approach is to model the atria as a surface, which is the kind of data typically provided by medical imaging for thin volumes. The bidomain equations are considered in their usual formulation in the ventricles, and in a surface formulation on the atria. Two ionic models are used: the Courtemanche-Ramirez-Nattel model on the atria and the 'minimal model for human ventricular action potentials' by Bueno-Orovio, Cherry, and Fenton in the ventricles. The heart is weakly coupled to the torso by a Robin boundary condition based on a resistor-capacitor transmission condition. Various electrocardiograms (ECGs) are simulated in healthy and pathological conditions (left and right bundle branch blocks, Bachmann's bundle block, and Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome). To assess the numerical ECGs, we use several qualitative and quantitative criteria found in the medical literature. Our simulator can also be used to generate the signals measured by a vest of electrodes. This capability is illustrated at the end of the article. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., (Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

This paper deals with the numerical simulation of electrocardiograms (ECG). Our aim is to devise a mathematical model, based on partial differential equations, which is able to provide realistic 12-lead ECGs. The main ingredients of this model are classical: the bidomain equations coupled to a phenomenological ionic model in the heart, and a generalized Laplace equation in the torso. The obtention of realistic ECGs relies on other important features--including heart-torso transmission conditions, anisotropy, cell heterogeneity and His bundle modeling--that are discussed in detail. The numerical implementation is based on state-of-the-art numerical methods: domain decomposition techniques and second order semi-implicit time marching schemes, offering a good compromise between accuracy, stability and efficiency. The numerical ECGs obtained with this approach show correct amplitudes, shapes and polarities, in all the 12 standard leads. The relevance of every modeling choice is carefully discussed and the numerical ECG sensitivity to the model parameters investigated.