Simulation of the cardiac electrical activity sequence using 3-D stochastically distributed parameters

Abstract

This report outlines our efforts, present and future, of studying a model of the cardiac electrical propagation processes. The objectives of the study are: (1) to develop a model of the cardiac conduction system and the myocardial cellular electrical activity, in which the cell parameters obey a predetermined random distribution, (2) simulate the propagation of the electrical activity in the 3-D true geometry model of the left ventricle (LV), (3) test the sensitivity of the model parameters in the range of values reported for normal hearts, (4) generate pathological activities, like premature beats, tachycardia, alternans and fibrillation, by introducing cellular parameters found in a diseased hearts, (5) determine the time of activation of each point in the myocardial space, (6) calculate the body surface potential maps according to reported transfer characteristics, (7) evaluate the model’s performance by comparing its sequence of body surface potential maps to experimentally and clinically generated maps. Results of down-scaled elemental models demonstrate that such models with randomly distributed parameters may initiate unpredictably premature beats, tachycardias and other pathologies. Thus, the 3-D polygonal model is expected to generate, with great spatial detail, the normal as well as pathological unstable electrical activities, and under these conditions represent the different patterns of dynamic, time varying body surface potential maps.