Wes Cain
Modeling Electrical Wave Propagation in Cardiac Tissue
Abstract
Most models of the cardiac action potential are similar in spirit to the
Nobel Prize-winning work of Hodgkin and Huxley. However, unlike nerve cells,
cardiac cells exhibit an important feature known as electrical restitution. In this
lecture, I'll use a simple, two-variable model to derive restitution relationships which
will allow us to predict both the duration and velocity of each propagating action
potential. In doing so, I'll obtain criteria for the onset of an arrhythmia known as
T-wave alternans.
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