The Mechanical Bidomain Model: A Review

The mechanical bidomain model is a new mathematical description of the elastic behavior of cardiac tissue. Its primary advantage over previous models is that it accounts for forces acting across the cell membrane arising from differences in the displacement of the intracellular and extracellular spaces. In this paper, I describe the development of the mechanical bidomain model. I emphasize new predictions of the model, such as the existence of boundary layers at the tissue surface where the membrane forces are large, and pressure differences between the intracellular and extracellular spaces. Although the theoretical analysis is quite mathematical, I highlight the types of experiments that could be used to test the model predictions. Finally, I present open questions about the mechanical bidomain model that may be productive future directions for research.