Re-entrant activity and its control in a model of mammalian ventricular tissue

We characterize the meander of re-entrant excitation in a model of a sheet of mammalian ventricular tissue, and its control by resonant drift under feedback driven stimulation. The Oxsoft equations for excitability in a guinea pig single ventricular cell were incorporated in a two dimensional reaction-diffusion system to model homogeneous, isotropic tissue with a plane wave conduction velocity of 0.35 m s-1. Re-entrant spiral wave solutions have a spatially extended transient motion (linear core) that settles down into rotation with an irregular period of 100-110 ms around an irregular, multi-lobed spiky core. In anisotropic tissue this would appear as a linear conduction block. The typical velocity of drift of the spiral wave induced by low amplitude resonant forcing is 0.4 cm s-1.