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Bipolar Stimulation of Cardiac Tissue Using an Anisotropic Bidomain Model
Author(s) -
SEPULVEDA NESTOR G.,
WIKSWO JOHN P.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of cardiovascular electrophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.193
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1540-8167
pISSN - 1045-3873
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-8167.1994.tb01162.x
Subject(s) - bidomain model , cardiac electrophysiology , stimulation , biomedical engineering , medicine , anisotropy , finite element method , electric potential , nuclear magnetic resonance , electrophysiology , voltage , neuroscience , physics , optics , quantum mechanics , biology , thermodynamics
Bipolar Stimulation of the Cardiac Bidomain. Introduction: One of the fundamental electrophysiologic problems that has not yet been completely elucidated is the response of cardiac tissue to externally applied electric currents. A limited number of theoretical and experimental techniques has been used to study the electric behavior of cardiac tissue in the presence of stimulating currents, and to demonstrate that the anisotropy in the passive electrical properties of the tissue plays an important role in the genesis and propagation of the activation wave‐front and the resulting potential distributions. Methods and Results: In this work we have applied the finite element method to study the electric and magnetic fields produced by cardiac tissue in response to bipolar current injection, using a linear bidomain model to represent the tissue. We found that the transmembrane potential distribution close to the stimulus electrode has a rather complex geometrical pattern, with adjacent hyperpolarized and depolarized regions. Conclusion: This behavior is consistent with previous theoretical and experimental results and may have implications in the study of electrical stimulation of cardiac tissue that are not apparent using other models.