Complex patterns of spontaneous initiations and terminations of reentrant circulation in a loop of cardiac tissue

TL;DR

This paper presents a two-component model of cardiac tissue that simulates reentrant circulation patterns, including spontaneous initiations and terminations, highlighting the roles of threshold bistability and phase-resetting interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel discrete loop model with experimentally measured properties to analyze complex reentry dynamics in cardiac tissue.

Findings

Patterns of reentry can be regular or irregular.

Irregularities are caused by threshold bistability and phase-resetting interactions.

The model provides insights into mechanisms of cardiac reentry phenomena.

Abstract

A two-component model is developed that consists of a discrete loop of cardiac cells that circulates action potentials together with a cardiac pacing mechanism. Physiological properties of cells such as restitutions of refractoriness and of conduction velocity are given via experimentally measured functions. The dynamics of circulating pulses and their interactions with the pacer are regulated by two threshold relations. Patterns of spontaneous initiations and terminations of reentry (SITR) generated by this system are studied through numerical simulations and analytical observations. These patterns can be regular or irregular; causes of irregularities are identified as the threshold bistability of reentrant circulation (T-bistability) and in some cases, also phase-resetting interactions with the pacer.