Computers and arrhythmiascomputational approaches to understanding cardiac electrical dynamics

Abstract

Heart disease is one of the most prevalent diseases in the world and is the leading cause of death in industrialized countries. In the United States alone, cardiovascular disease affects about 68 million people, roughly 25% of the total population, from both sexes, and all races and ages, and costs an estimated $117 billion annually. It is currently believed that most dangerous cardiac arrhythmias are due to reentrant wave(s) of electrical activity. In particular, a single scroll wave of action potential can be associated with tachycardia, a rapid heart rhythm that often precedes fibrillation, which is associated with multiple scroll waves and is in general a lethal arrhythmia if it occurs in the ventricles. We present a computational approach used to understand the initiation and evolution of cardiac arrhythmias, which we believe, forms a necessary link between experiment and theory.