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Wednesday, November 4, 2009

BME500 Seminar Series

"Electrical Turbulence and Vortex-Like Reentry in the Mammalian Heart"

Omer Berenfeld, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Biomedical Engineering
Center for Arrhythmia Research
Department of Internal Medicine
University of Michigan
Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 3:30 - 4:30 pm.
White Auditorium - Rm G906 Cooley Building

Cardiac electrical turbulence known as ventricular fibrillation (VF) is the major cause of sudden and unexpected death. We take an integrative approach to study the manner in which nonlinear electrical waves that were originally thought of being random organize to result in VF. The presentation centers on data derived from models of stable VF that demonstrate distinct patterns of excitation organization. Analysis of optical mapping data reveals that VF excitation frequencies are distributed throughout the ventricles in clearly demarcated domains with the highest frequency domains found where a sustained reentrant activity that drives the arrhythmia is present. Using numerical and cellular electrophysiology approaches we further study how certain transmembrane potassium currents determine the rotor stability and frequency. Computer simulations and analytical procedures then predict that the filaments of those reentrant waves (scroll waves) adopt a non-random configuration depending on fiber organization within the ventricular wall.