A new approach to optimization-based defibrillation

The purpose of this paper is to develop a new model for optimal cardiac defibrillation, based on simultaneous minimization of energy consumption and defibrillation time requirements. In order to generate optimal defibrillation waveforms that will accomplish the objective stated above, one parameter rho has been introduced as a part of the performance measure to weigh the relative importance of time and energy. All the results of this theoretical study have been obtained for the proposed model, under the assumption that cardiac tissue can be represented by a simple parallel resistor-capacitor circuit. It is well known from modern control theory that the selection of a numerical value of the weight factor is the matter of subjective judgment of a designer. However, it has been shown that defining a cost function can help in selecting a value for rho. Some results of the mathematical development of the algorithm and computer simulations will be included in the paper.