Summary
It has been suggested that spiral wave reentry is the principal mechanism of functional tachyarrhythmias. In this study, we present images of the dynamics of tachyarrhythmic excitation propagation based on spiral wave reentry obtained in a virtual heart model. For this purpose, we employed high-performance computation techniques using a supercomputer and visualizing techniques using color computer graphics. In this heart model, the myocardial units were represented by two types of non-linear ordinary differential equations. The myocardial units were connected to each other into simple shaped two-or three-dimensional media corresponding to the heart walls and also into a human ventricular-shaped medium. The dynamics of excitation propagation were visualized intelligibly through various improvements in the visualizing techniques employed in the implementation of the three-dimensional graphics. Our results suggested that it is possible for lethal arrhythmia, commonly called ventricular fibrillation, to occur even in hearts without any conduction abnormalities or repolarization heterogeneity, e.g., infarction or ischemia, and cause sudden death.
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© 2000 Springer Japan
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Nakazawa, K. et al. (2000). Computational Analysis and Visualization of Spiral Wave Reentry in a Virtual Heart Model. In: Yamaguchi, T. (eds) Clinical Application of Computational Mechanics to the Cardiovascular System. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-67921-9_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-67921-9_21
Publisher Name: Springer, Tokyo
Print ISBN: 978-4-431-67989-9
Online ISBN: 978-4-431-67921-9
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