Wave emission from heterogeneities opens a way to controlling chaos in the heart

Phys Rev Lett. 2007 Nov 16;99(20):208101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.208101. Epub 2007 Nov 13.

Abstract

The effectiveness of chaos control in large systems increases with the number of control sites. We find that electric field induced wave emission from heterogeneities (WEH) in the heart gives a unique opportunity to have as many control sites as needed. The number of pacing sites grows with the amplitude of the electric field. We demonstrate that WEH has important advantages over methods used in clinics, and opens a new way to manipulate vortices in experiments, and potentially to radically improve the clinical methods of chaos control in the heart.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Electrophysiology
  • Heart / physiology*
  • Membrane Potentials
  • Models, Cardiovascular*
  • Myocardial Contraction