LV RV Matthew Kay, DSc. Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept of Pharmacology and...

LV

RV

Matthew Kay, DSc.Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dept of Pharmacology and Physiology

Electrical rotors: a cause of sudden

death.

Rotors can be studied in great detail using

computational models.

kaymwk@gmail.com

Panoramic imaging reveals a dozen short lived rotors during VF in healthy swine hearts.

Rotors rarely lasted longer than 1 sec. Stable epicardial rotors do not maintain VF. Continual formation of new rotors is critical for VF maintenance.

Fast fluorescence imaging reveals successful antitachycardia pacing.

Intracellular calcium transients from monolayers of cardiomyocytes show rotor termination by paced-induced rotor drift.

Antitachycardia therapy to prevent ventricular fibrillation.

Action potentials from the epicardium of small animal hearts (rabbit) show rotor termination by wavefront - wavefront collisions.

Ischemic tissue is proarrhythmic by two mechanisms: delayed conduction or block and spontaneous (ectopic) activation.

When and where might one mechanism dominate?

Excised rat/rabbit heart model of local ischemia.