Solving Heterogeneities in Defibrillation for a Vascular Remodel of the Human Heart

Abstract

Arianna Pahlavan

Introduction: Current mathematical models impede the amelioration of defibrillation protocol. Heterogeneities such as intracellular clefts, scarring, blood vessels, and fiber orientation are excluded in modeling. Such geometries pose a positive curvature, magnifying resistance when faced with electrical shock. Thus, such geometries have the potential of revolutionizing AED machines-a prospect we have not gained enough data on to consider.

Objective: The purpose of my study is to quantify the effect of each non-conformity in relation to the electrical dynamics of the human heart. Post-quantification, I hypothesize that the electrical impedance decreases as the heterogeneity size decreases. Posed with such a window of pertinence, my goal is to remodel the human heart including all heterogeneities-a previous infeasibility.

Methodology: Using CHASTE cardiac software library, electrical shock was applied to cardiac tissue engineered in Mesh Lab. Cardiac tissue, the slab geometries, contained blood vessels in the center of varying vessel size-400, 200, 100μm.

Results: Overall, the results showed that without heterogeneities biological reality and computational modeling have severe discrepancies; mainly, the experimentally supported therapy of low-energy ant fibrillation shows failure in math modeling. Perpendicular fiber orientation perceived shock at a 1.74x more efficacies. In the most sensitive case scenario, 400 and 200μm affected the defibrillating wave-front, while the 100μm heterogeneity did not.

Conclusion: All heterogeneities cannot be extracted by magnetic resonance angiography due to its limiting factor of magnetic susceptibility; however, by filtering can anatomically accurate mathematical remodel capable of representing the necessary cardiac vessels is created.

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