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Published on: July 29, 2011
Eliminating spiral waves pinned to an anatomical obstacle in cardiac myocytes by high-frequency stimuli
Akihiro Isomura1, Marcel Hörning, Konstantin Agladze
1Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University and Spatio-Temporal Project, ICORP JST, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.
Abstract:
The unpinning of spiral waves by the application of high-frequency wave trains was studied in cultured cardiac myocytes. Successful unpinning was observed when the frequency of the paced waves exceeded a critical level. The unpinning process was analyzed by a numerical simulation with a model of cardiac tissue. The mechanism of unpinning by high-frequency stimuli is discussed in terms of local entrainment failure, through a reduction of the two-dimensional spatial characteristics into one dimension.

