Computer modelling of the initiation of myocardial fibrillation

A computer model of cardiac excitation and recovery processes reproduced chaotic behavior of the simulated tissue to investigate the way that different parameters influence the degree of modeled disorganization. The model included abnormal shapes of action potential curves corresponding to premature excitation, excitation transmission based on transmembrane voltages, and the electronic interactions between neighboring cells. The model was used to examine a one-dimensional cable of simulated cells. The degree of the simulated chaos was examined in the dependence on the shapes of action potential curves, on the threshold of transmembrane voltages initiating an excitation wave, and on the degree of the electrotonic interactions of neighboring cells. The maximum disorganization was achieved when combining the negative influence of all parameters. Changing the shape of the action potential curves had a greater preventive influence on the modeled chaos than variation of the other parameters. >