Spiral wave unpinning facilitated by wave emitting sites in cardiac monolayers. (16th October 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Punacha, Shreyas; Berg, Sebastian; Sebastian, Anupama; Krinski, Valentin I.; Luther, Stefan; Shajahan, T. K.
• Is Part Of: Proceedings. Volume 475:Number 2230(2019)
• Publication Date: 2019-10-16
• Subjects: excitable media -- spiral waves -- unpinning window -- cardiac arrhythmia; Physical sciences -- Periodicals; Engineering -- Periodicals; Mathematics -- Periodicals; 500
• DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2019.0420
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1364-5021

Abstract

Abstract : Rotating spiral waves of electrical activity in the heart can anchor to unexcitable tissue (an obstacle) and become stable pinned waves. A pinned rotating wave can be unpinned either by a local electrical stimulus applied close to the spiral core, or by an electric field pulse that excites the core of a pinned wave independently of its localization. The wave will be unpinned only when the pulse is delivered inside a narrow time interval called the unpinning window (UW) of the spiral. In experiments with cardiac monolayers, we found that other obstacles situated near the pinning centre of the spiral can facilitate unpinning. In numerical simulations, we found increasing or decreasing of the UW depending on the location, orientation and distance between the pinning centre and an obstacle. Our study indicates that multiple obstacles could contribute to unpinning in experiments with intact hearts.