Berlin 2008 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 17: Poster I

DY 17.37: Poster

Tuesday, February 26, 2008, 16:00–18:00, Poster C

Investigation of atrial fibrillation generating mechanisms — •Claudia Hamann, Mario Einax, and Philipp Maass — Institut für Physik, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Deutschland

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia of the heart in the industrial countries. Different theories with respect to the generating mechanism of the fibrillatory state in the atria are discussed in the literature [1]: Single or multiple reentrant waves, stable or meandering spirals, action potentials circulating around tissue inhomogeneities, or the interference of a stable spiral in the left atrium with regular waves coming from the sinus node in the right atrium.
To probe these mechanisms we study the interplay between travelling action potentials and spatial inhomogeneities ("obstacles") on the basis of the FitzHugh-Nagumo-model [2]. Dependent on the form and characteristics of the obstacle various behaviours occur, for example, spiral waves can be bound to the obstacle, or they detach and meander through the system. We determine a phase diagram that differentiates the dynamical patterns with respect to the parameters characterising the extent and the physiological features of the obstacle.

[1] S. Nattel, Nature 415, 219 (2002).

[2] R. FitzHugh, J. Gen. Physiol. 43, 867 (1960).