Open AccessA comparison between different Purkinje network generation methods
Author(s) -
Lucas Arantes Berg,
Rodrigo Weber dos Santos
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
revista mundi engenharia, tecnologia e gestão
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2525-4782
DOI - 10.21575/25254782rmetg2020vol5n21168
Subject(s) - reentry , purkinje fibers , solver , context (archaeology) , computer science , coupling (piping) , electrical conduction system of the heart , neuroscience , biological system , materials science , medicine , biology , electrocardiography , electrophysiology , paleontology , metallurgy , programming language
Heart diseases are the major cause of deaths worldwide and within this context, the most common disease is cardiac arrhythmia. There is some evidence that the generation and maintenance of those arrhythmias might be related to the properties of the Purkinje system. Mostly because of its complex structure, which is thought to be the source of reentry activity, one of the precursors of dangerous arrhythmias. The objective of this work is to investigate how the morphology and properties of the Purkinje fibers of the heart may affect the electrical activation of the tissue. In order to build the Purkinje networks of this project, three different algorithms were used and their responses in activating the ventricular walls were compared. The monodomain equation was used to mathematically model the electrical activation and a parallel solver was used to speed up the numerical solution of the problem. The results of this work show that together with the geometry of the Purkinje network, properties of the coupling between the terminals of the network and the ventricular tissue also affect the electrical activation by leading to conduction blocks.