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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 13: Focus session: Nonlinear Dynamics of the Heart II (organized by Markus Bär, Stefan Luther and Ulrich Parlitz)
DY 13.6: Talk
Thursday, September 30, 2021, 15:30–15:45, H2
A simulation study of the effects of optogenetics on the human cardiac pacemaker: Prospects of Opto-ATP control. — Afnan Nabizath Mohamed Nazer1, Sayedeh Hussaini2,3, Raul A. Quinonez Uribe2, Stefan Luther2,3, and •Rupamanjari Majumder1,2 — 1University Medical Center Göttingen, 37075 Göttingen, Germany — 2Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Goettingen, Germany — 3Institute for the Dynamics of Complex Systems, Goettingen University, Goettingen, Germany
High-frequency electric spiral and scroll waves often occur in the heart during lethal cardiac arrhythmias. Treatment of such arrhythmias necessitates removal of these waves. Currently, the most effective approach to eliminating these waves is defibrillation, which involves delivering high-voltage shocks to the heart. However, the technique is accompanied by numerous negative side effects that make it suboptimal.
Optimizing defibrillation primarily requires reducing defibrillation energy. To this end, the approach that works best for tachycardic arrhythmias is anti-tachycardia pacing (ATP). ATP relies on the external application of a series of low-energy, high-frequency electrical pulses that stimulate the heart faster than the arrhythmia. A biological evolution of this approach would be to replace the external energy source with the heart’s own pacemaker. But such a step would require deeper understanding of pacemaker function. Recently, optogenetics has emerged as a powerful tool in cardiac research. Using optogenetic simulations, I explore the possibility to realise ATP in human hearts.