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Quasiperiodicity and chaos in cardiac fibrillation

A Garfinkel1, P S Chen, D O Walter

  • 1Department of Medicine (Cardiology), University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, 90095, USA. alang@lifesci.ucla.edu

The Journal of Clinical Investigation
|January 15, 1997
PubMed

Insights

Cardiac fibrillation, a loss of organized heart activity, arises from a "quasiperiodic transition to chaos." This finding in human and canine models suggests fibrillation is spatio-temporal chaos, opening new therapeutic avenues.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiology
  • Nonlinear Dynamics
  • Computational Biology

Background:

  • Cardiac fibrillation involves disorganized electrical activity and loss of contractile function.
  • Existing research has explored various models of fibrillation, but a unified understanding of its underlying dynamics is lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the dynamic mechanisms underlying cardiac fibrillation across different forms.
  • To determine if fibrillation exemplifies the quasiperiodic transition to chaos theory.

Main Methods:

  • Studied human chronic atrial fibrillation.
  • Examined stabilized canine ventricular fibrillation.
  • Investigated in vitro fibrillation in canine and human ventricular tissue.
  • Developed and analyzed a computer model of fibrillation.

Main Results:

  • Evidence across all four studies indicated fibrillation emerges from a quasiperiodic stage of period and amplitude modulation.
  • This pattern aligns with the Ruelle-Takens theory of quasiperiodic transition to chaos.
  • Fibrillation was characterized as a form of spatio-temporal chaos.

Conclusions:

  • Cardiac fibrillation represents a spatio-temporal chaotic phenomenon.
  • The quasiperiodic transition to chaos provides a unifying framework for understanding fibrillation dynamics.
  • This insight suggests novel therapeutic strategies targeting the chaotic nature of fibrillation.

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