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Generation and propagation of ectopic beats induced by spatially localized Na-K pump inhibition in atrial network
R L Winslow1, A Varghese, D Noble
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205.
Proceedings. Biological Sciences
|October 22, 1993
Abstract:
A biophysically detailed two-dimensional network model of the cardiac atrium has been implemented on the Thinking Machines massively parallel CM-5 supercomputer. The model is used to study the effects of spatially localized inhibition of the Na-K pump. Na overloading produced by pump inhibition can induce spontaneous, propagating ectopic beats within the network. At a cell-to-cell coupling value yielding a realistic plane wave conduction velocity of 0.6 m s-1, pump inhibition in roughly 1000 cells can induce propagating ectopic beats in a 512 x 512 lattice of cells.