Analysis of the effect of apex-base wall curvature on the vectorial representation of ventricular depolarization: a...

A computer model of propagated activation study is presented to investigate the possible effect of the ventricular wall curvature on the vectorial representation of its activation. The shape of the ventricle is changed by gradually decreasing the value of the input parameter determining the relative apex-base curvature of the ventricular wall (rvc) from 1.0 to 0.5. Two series of simulation experiments were accomplished. In the first series all input parameters of the model were held constant, except for rvc. In the second series, the height of the ventricles was altered simultaneously with the value of rvc in order to hold the volumes of the ventricular walls and cavities constant. In both series, the gradual increase of the apex-base curvature of the ventricular walls led to a slight decrease of initial heart vectors and an increase of laterally oriented vectors accompanied with their downward deviation. In addition, this increase caused a decrease in the terminal heart vectors along with their rotation to the left. The degree of this changes was proportional to the difference in the relative apex-base curvature of the two ventricles compared. The apex-base curvature of ventricular walls was found to be an effective factor influencing the cardiac electric field and consequently its representative quantitative parameters.