Seminar Abstract

“Model of the infarcted canine heart predicts arrhythmia generation from specific cardiac geometry and scar distribution”

Postinfarction reentrant ventricular tachyarrhythmias (VT) remain therapeutic challenges due to the difficulty in finding the location(s) of reentrant pathways arising from the infarct zone. Current clinical practice uses electrical activation mapping for pinpointing reentrant circuit location. The procedure is time consuming and is limited by the fact that reentrant circuits might be anchored to infarcted tissue located deep within the heart, away from recording electrodes. In this talk, we will present a novel technique that addresses this limitation by utilizing computer modeling to predict the location of reentrant circuits in an infarcted heart. High resolution magnetic resonance images and diffusion tensor images of an infarcted canine heart were used to construct a model that incorporates accurate geometry and fiber orientations. Image processing techniques were used to obtain accurate segmentation of the different regions of the infarction. Realistic ionic models were used to represent the electrophysiology within the different regions and simulations were performed to predict arrhythmia generation.