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IFAC-PapersOnLine 49-26 (2016)
026–031
ScienceDirect
Available online at
www.sciencedirect.com
2405-8963
©
2016, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Peer review under responsibility of International Federation of Automatic Control.
10.1016/j.ifacol.2016.12.098
©
2016, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
ASimplified2DHeartModelofthe
Wolff-Parkinson-WhiteSyndrome
ClemensZeile
∗
EberhardScholz
∗∗
SebastianSager
∗
∗
MathematicsDepartment,UniversityofMagdeburg,39106Germany
(e-mail:clemens.zeile@ovgu.de;sager@ovgu.de).
∗∗
CardiologyDepartment,UniversityHospitalHeidelberg,69120
Germany,(e-mail:eberhard.scholz@med.uni-heidelberg.de)
Abstract:
Theenormousprogressmadeincomputationalcardiacelectrophysiologyduringthe
pastdecadeshasresultedinadiverserangeofmodelsandnumericalmethods.Ingeneral,
researchershaveelaboratedhighlycomplexanddetailedsimulatorsonthecellandtissuelevel.
Incontrast,therehasbeenalackofsimplifiedwhole-heartmodelsthatstudyspecificheart
arrhythmias.Inthisstudy,weapproximatetheelectrophysiologyofWolff-Parkinson-White
Syndromewithsuchamodel.Inordertoreproducethecardiacanomaly,weapplytheso-called
bidomainapproachinvolvingpartialdifferentialequations.Resultsshowthatthesimulations
arerealistic,bothinECGgenerationandelectricactivationsequence.Ourassessmentofthe
modelimplementationtakesintoaccountparameterandgeometryvariation,whichsupportsa
realisticviewofmedicalaspects.Ourinsilicoanalysisthushelpsprovideclearinsightsintothe
mechanismsofarrhythmiasandassociatedECGchanges.
Keywords:
Medicalsystems,heart,electricalsignalpropagation,cardiacarrhythmias,
electrocardiogram,Wolff-Parkinson-Whitesyndrome
1.INTRODUCTION
Cardiovasculardisease(CVD)accountedfor17.3million
deathsin2013,makingitapparentlytheleadingcause
ofdeathglobally(Naghavietal.(2014)).Withagrowing
numberofsufferer,itisestimatedthat90%ofCVDis
preventable(McGilletal.(2008)).Cardiacarrhythmias
constituteamajorfactorforsuddencardiacdeath(SCD).
Oneofthesearrhythmias,atrio-ventricularreciprocat-
ingtachycardia(AVRT),isassociatedwiththeWolff-
Parkinson-White(WPW)syndrome.Here,syndromein-
volvesanaccessoryelectricalconductionpathway(AP)
betweenatriumandventricleleadingtoprematurelystim-
ulated,andthuscontracted,ventricles.
SymptomsofWPWincludepalpitationsandsyncope.
Onlyinrarecases(lessthan0.6%,Naghavietal.(2014))
isWPWfatal,forexample,whenaccompaniedbyatrial
fibrillation.Acommonmeansofdetectingthediseaseisa
slurredupstrokeintheelectrocardiogram,referredtoasa
”deltawave”.ForfurtherdetailsonWPW,wereferthe
readertoPageetal.(2015).
TheopensourceframeworkChaste(GaryRMirams
(2013))isanexcellenttoolformultiscaleandcomplex
simulations,andonethatcanhandleverydetailedcardiac
electrophysiologycomputations.Ittakesintoaccounta
varietyofanatomicalandphysiologicalfeaturessuchas
fiberorientation,cellheterogeneities,anisotropy,aswell
asrestitutionproperties.ThesimulatorsacCELLerate
(Seemannetal.(2010)),CARP(Vigmond(2003)),and
OpenCMISS(Christie(2009))aresimilar,highlydetailed
packages.
However,theseveryrealisticapproachesrequireexten-
sivecomputationpower,andoccasionallyeventheuse
ofsupercomputers.Forinstance,CARPneeds6.4hin
a64-processormachinetosimulatejust200msofcardiac
activity(Mitchell(2010)).
Toreducecomputationaleffort,Balakrishnanetal.re-
centlyintroduceda2Dwhole-heartmodelinMatlabthat
focusesonthesimulationofcardiacarrhythmias(Balakr-
ishnanetal.(2015)).Themodelusesaphenomenological
approachtocomputeelectricalsignalpropagation,i.e.,
cellsindiscreteformlinearlyexchangecurrentwitheight
neighboringcells.Soviljetal.(2014)describesa2Dsim-
plified(intermsofanatomy)approachthatalsocovers
thesurroundingtorsotocomputerealisticECGgenera-
tion,albeitapplyingthenumericallydemandingbidomain
equations.Weadoptedthismodelforacomprehensive
WPWstudyimplementation,sinceitrepresentsagood
compromisebetweenrealisticsimulation,computational
loadandflexibility.WerefertoTrayanova(2011),Clayton
etal.(2011),andHenriquez(2014)forreviewsonwhole-
heartmodeling.
DuetoWPW’sinnocuousnesscomparedtootherar-
rhythmias(e.g.,ventricularfibrillation),thereareonly
fewWPWsimulationapproaches,andtheseusemainly
cellularautomata(Zhuetal.(2007),Fleischmannetal.
(1996)).Tofillthisresearchgap,weexaminetheWPW
syndromeusinganaccuratebidomainmodel,simplifying
itonlyenoughtoachievereasonablecomputationaltimes.
WeextendtheSovilj-Modelbymeansof:
•
geometricadoptionwithanaccessorypathway(so
calledbundleofKent),
6th IFAC Conference on
Foundations of Systems Biology in Engineering
October 9-12, 2016. Magdeburg, Germany
Copyright © 2016 IFAC
1
ASimplified2DHeartModelofthe
Wolff-Parkinson-WhiteSyndrome
ClemensZeile
∗
EberhardScholz
∗∗
SebastianSager
∗
∗
MathematicsDepartment,UniversityofMagdeburg,39106Germany
(e-mail:clemens.zeile@ovgu.de;sager@ovgu.de).
∗∗
CardiologyDepartment,UniversityHospitalHeidelberg,69120
Germany,(e-mail:eberhard.scholz@med.uni-heidelberg.de)
Abstract:
Theenormousprogressmadeincomputationalcardiacelectrophysiologyduringthe
pastdecadeshasresultedinadiverserangeofmodelsandnumericalmethods.Ingeneral,
researchershaveelaboratedhighlycomplexanddetailedsimulatorsonthecellandtissuelevel.
Incontrast,therehasbeenalackofsimplifiedwhole-heartmodelsthatstudyspecificheart
arrhythmias.Inthisstudy,weapproximatetheelectrophysiologyofWolff-Parkinson-White
Syndromewithsuchamodel.Inordertoreproducethecardiacanomaly,weapplytheso-called
bidomainapproachinvolvingpartialdifferentialequations.Resultsshowthatthesimulations
arerealistic,bothinECGgenerationandelectricactivationsequence.Ourassessmentofthe
modelimplementationtakesintoaccountparameterandgeometryvariation,whichsupportsa
realisticviewofmedicalaspects.Ourinsilicoanalysisthushelpsprovideclearinsightsintothe
mechanismsofarrhythmiasandassociatedECGchanges.
Keywords:
Medicalsystems,heart,electricalsignalpropagation,cardiacarrhythmias,
electrocardiogram,Wolff-Parkinson-Whitesyndrome
1.INTRODUCTION
Cardiovasculardisease(CVD)accountedfor17.3million
deathsin2013,makingitapparentlytheleadingcause
ofdeathglobally(Naghavietal.(2014)).Withagrowing
numberofsufferer,itisestimatedthat90%ofCVDis
preventable(McGilletal.(2008)).Cardiacarrhythmias
constituteamajorfactorforsuddencardiacdeath(SCD).
Oneofthesearrhythmias,atrio-ventricularreciprocat-
ingtachycardia(AVRT),isassociatedwiththeWolff-
Parkinson-White(WPW)syndrome.Here,syndromein-
volvesanaccessoryelectricalconductionpathway(AP)
betweenatriumandventricleleadingtoprematurelystim-
ulated,andthuscontracted,ventricles.
SymptomsofWPWincludepalpitationsandsyncope.
Onlyinrarecases(lessthan0.6%,Naghavietal.(2014))
isWPWfatal,forexample,whenaccompaniedbyatrial
fibrillation.Acommonmeansofdetectingthediseaseisa
slurredupstrokeintheelectrocardiogram,referredtoasa
”deltawave”.ForfurtherdetailsonWPW,wereferthe
readertoPageetal.(2015).
TheopensourceframeworkChaste(GaryRMirams
(2013))isanexcellenttoolformultiscaleandcomplex
simulations,andonethatcanhandleverydetailedcardiac
electrophysiologycomputations.Ittakesintoaccounta
varietyofanatomicalandphysiologicalfeaturessuchas
fiberorientation,cellheterogeneities,anisotropy,aswell
asrestitutionproperties.ThesimulatorsacCELLerate
(Seemannetal.(2010)),CARP(Vigmond(2003)),and
OpenCMISS(Christie(2009))aresimilar,highlydetailed
packages.
However,theseveryrealisticapproachesrequireexten-
sivecomputationpower,andoccasionallyeventheuse
ofsupercomputers.Forinstance,CARPneeds6.4hin
a64-processormachinetosimulatejust200msofcardiac
activity(Mitchell(2010)).
Toreducecomputationaleffort,Balakrishnanetal.re-
centlyintroduceda2Dwhole-heartmodelinMatlabthat
focusesonthesimulationofcardiacarrhythmias(Balakr-
ishnanetal.(2015)).Themodelusesaphenomenological
approachtocomputeelectricalsignalpropagation,i.e.,
cellsindiscreteformlinearlyexchangecurrentwitheight
neighboringcells.Soviljetal.(2014)describesa2Dsim-
plified(intermsofanatomy)approachthatalsocovers
thesurroundingtorsotocomputerealisticECGgenera-
tion,albeitapplyingthenumericallydemandingbidomain
equations.Weadoptedthismodelforacomprehensive
WPWstudyimplementation,sinceitrepresentsagood
compromisebetweenrealisticsimulation,computational
loadandflexibility.WerefertoTrayanova(2011),Clayton
etal.(2011),andHenriquez(2014)forreviewsonwhole-
heartmodeling.
DuetoWPW’sinnocuousnesscomparedtootherar-
rhythmias(e.g.,ventricularfibrillation),thereareonly
fewWPWsimulationapproaches,andtheseusemainly
cellularautomata(Zhuetal.(2007),Fleischmannetal.
(1996)).Tofillthisresearchgap,weexaminetheWPW
syndromeusinganaccuratebidomainmodel,simplifying
itonlyenoughtoachievereasonablecomputationaltimes.
WeextendtheSovilj-Modelbymeansof:
•
geometricadoptionwithanaccessorypathway(so
calledbundleofKent),
6th IFAC Conference on
Foundations of Systems Biology in Engineering
October 9-12, 2016. Magdeburg, Germany
Copyright © 2016 IFAC
1
ASimplified2DHeartModelofthe
Wolff-Parkinson-WhiteSyndrome
ClemensZeile
∗
EberhardScholz
∗∗
SebastianSager
∗
∗
MathematicsDepartment,UniversityofMagdeburg,39106Germany
(e-mail:clemens.zeile@ovgu.de;sager@ovgu.de).
∗∗
CardiologyDepartment,UniversityHospitalHeidelberg,69120
Germany,(e-mail:eberhard.scholz@med.uni-heidelberg.de)
Abstract:
Theenormousprogressmadeincomputationalcardiacelectrophysiologyduringthe
pastdecadeshasresultedinadiverserangeofmodelsandnumericalmethods.Ingeneral,
researchershaveelaboratedhighlycomplexanddetailedsimulatorsonthecellandtissuelevel.
Incontrast,therehasbeenalackofsimplifiedwhole-heartmodelsthatstudyspecificheart
arrhythmias.Inthisstudy,weapproximatetheelectrophysiologyofWolff-Parkinson-White
Syndromewithsuchamodel.Inordertoreproducethecardiacanomaly,weapplytheso-called
bidomainapproachinvolvingpartialdifferentialequations.Resultsshowthatthesimulations
arerealistic,bothinECGgenerationandelectricactivationsequence.Ourassessmentofthe
modelimplementationtakesintoaccountparameterandgeometryvariation,whichsupportsa
realisticviewofmedicalaspects.Ourinsilicoanalysisthushelpsprovideclearinsightsintothe
mechanismsofarrhythmiasandassociatedECGchanges.
Keywords:
Medicalsystems,heart,electricalsignalpropagation,cardiacarrhythmias,
electrocardiogram,Wolff-Parkinson-Whitesyndrome
1.INTRODUCTION
Cardiovasculardisease(CVD)accountedfor17.3million
deathsin2013,makingitapparentlytheleadingcause
ofdeathglobally(Naghavietal.(2014)).Withagrowing
numberofsufferer,itisestimatedthat90%ofCVDis
preventable(McGilletal.(2008)).Cardiacarrhythmias
constituteamajorfactorforsuddencardiacdeath(SCD).
Oneofthesearrhythmias,atrio-ventricularreciprocat-
ingtachycardia(AVRT),isassociatedwiththeWolff-
Parkinson-White(WPW)syndrome.Here,syndromein-
volvesanaccessoryelectricalconductionpathway(AP)
betweenatriumandventricleleadingtoprematurelystim-
ulated,andthuscontracted,ventricles.
SymptomsofWPWincludepalpitationsandsyncope.
Onlyinrarecases(lessthan0.6%,Naghavietal.(2014))
isWPWfatal,forexample,whenaccompaniedbyatrial
fibrillation.Acommonmeansofdetectingthediseaseisa
slurredupstrokeintheelectrocardiogram,referredtoasa
”deltawave”.ForfurtherdetailsonWPW,wereferthe
readertoPageetal.(2015).
TheopensourceframeworkChaste(GaryRMirams
(2013))isanexcellenttoolformultiscaleandcomplex
simulations,andonethatcanhandleverydetailedcardiac
electrophysiologycomputations.Ittakesintoaccounta
varietyofanatomicalandphysiologicalfeaturessuchas
fiberorientation,cellheterogeneities,anisotropy,aswell
asrestitutionproperties.ThesimulatorsacCELLerate
(Seemannetal.(2010)),CARP(Vigmond(2003)),and
OpenCMISS(Christie(2009))aresimilar,highlydetailed
packages.
However,theseveryrealisticapproachesrequireexten-
sivecomputationpower,andoccasionallyeventheuse
ofsupercomputers.Forinstance,CARPneeds6.4hin
a64-processormachinetosimulatejust200msofcardiac
activity(Mitchell(2010)).
Toreducecomputationaleffort,Balakrishnanetal.re-
centlyintroduceda2Dwhole-heartmodelinMatlabthat
focusesonthesimulationofcardiacarrhythmias(Balakr-
ishnanetal.(2015)).Themodelusesaphenomenological
approachtocomputeelectricalsignalpropagation,i.e.,
cellsindiscreteformlinearlyexchangecurrentwitheight
neighboringcells.Soviljetal.(2014)describesa2Dsim-
plified(intermsofanatomy)approachthatalsocovers
thesurroundingtorsotocomputerealisticECGgenera-
tion,albeitapplyingthenumericallydemandingbidomain
equations.Weadoptedthismodelforacomprehensive
WPWstudyimplementation,sinceitrepresentsagood
compromisebetweenrealisticsimulation,computational
loadandflexibility.WerefertoTrayanova(2011),Clayton
etal.(2011),andHenriquez(2014)forreviewsonwhole-
heartmodeling.
DuetoWPW’sinnocuousnesscomparedtootherar-
rhythmias(e.g.,ventricularfibrillation),thereareonly
fewWPWsimulationapproaches,andtheseusemainly
cellularautomata(Zhuetal.(2007),Fleischmannetal.
(1996)).Tofillthisresearchgap,weexaminetheWPW
syndromeusinganaccuratebidomainmodel,simplifying
itonlyenoughtoachievereasonablecomputationaltimes.
WeextendtheSovilj-Modelbymeansof:
•
geometricadoptionwithanaccessorypathway(so
calledbundleofKent),
6th IFAC Conference on
Foundations of Systems Biology in Engineering
October 9-12, 2016. Magdeburg, Germany
Copyright © 2016 IFAC
1
ASimplified2DHeartModelofthe
Wolff-Parkinson-WhiteSyndrome
ClemensZeile
∗
EberhardScholz
∗∗
SebastianSager
∗
∗
MathematicsDepartment,UniversityofMagdeburg,39106Germany
(e-mail:clemens.zeile@ovgu.de;sager@ovgu.de).
∗∗
CardiologyDepartment,UniversityHospitalHeidelberg,69120
Germany,(e-mail:eberhard.scholz@med.uni-heidelberg.de)
Abstract:
Theenormousprogressmadeincomputationalcardiacelectrophysiologyduringthe
pastdecadeshasresultedinadiverserangeofmodelsandnumericalmethods.Ingeneral,
researchershaveelaboratedhighlycomplexanddetailedsimulatorsonthecellandtissuelevel.
Incontrast,therehasbeenalackofsimplifiedwhole-heartmodelsthatstudyspecificheart
arrhythmias.Inthisstudy,weapproximatetheelectrophysiologyofWolff-Parkinson-White
Syndromewithsuchamodel.Inordertoreproducethecardiacanomaly,weapplytheso-called
bidomainapproachinvolvingpartialdifferentialequations.Resultsshowthatthesimulations
arerealistic,bothinECGgenerationandelectricactivationsequence.Ourassessmentofthe
modelimplementationtakesintoaccountparameterandgeometryvariation,whichsupportsa
realisticviewofmedicalaspects.Ourinsilicoanalysisthushelpsprovideclearinsightsintothe
mechanismsofarrhythmiasandassociatedECGchanges.
Keywords:
Medicalsystems,heart,electricalsignalpropagation,cardiacarrhythmias,
electrocardiogram,Wolff-Parkinson-Whitesyndrome
1.INTRODUCTION
Cardiovasculardisease(CVD)accountedfor17.3million
deathsin2013,makingitapparentlytheleadingcause
ofdeathglobally(Naghavietal.(2014)).Withagrowing
numberofsufferer,itisestimatedthat90%ofCVDis
preventable(McGilletal.(2008)).Cardiacarrhythmias
constituteamajorfactorforsuddencardiacdeath(SCD).
Oneofthesearrhythmias,atrio-ventricularreciprocat-
ingtachycardia(AVRT),isassociatedwiththeWolff-
Parkinson-White(WPW)syndrome.Here,syndromein-
volvesanaccessoryelectricalconductionpathway(AP)
betweenatriumandventricleleadingtoprematurelystim-
ulated,andthuscontracted,ventricles.
SymptomsofWPWincludepalpitationsandsyncope.
Onlyinrarecases(lessthan0.6%,Naghavietal.(2014))
isWPWfatal,forexample,whenaccompaniedbyatrial
fibrillation.Acommonmeansofdetectingthediseaseisa
slurredupstrokeintheelectrocardiogram,referredtoasa
”deltawave”.ForfurtherdetailsonWPW,wereferthe
readertoPageetal.(2015).
TheopensourceframeworkChaste(GaryRMirams
(2013))isanexcellenttoolformultiscaleandcomplex
simulations,andonethatcanhandleverydetailedcardiac
electrophysiologycomputations.Ittakesintoaccounta
varietyofanatomicalandphysiologicalfeaturessuchas
fiberorientation,cellheterogeneities,anisotropy,aswell
asrestitutionproperties.ThesimulatorsacCELLerate
(Seemannetal.(2010)),CARP(Vigmond(2003)),and
OpenCMISS(Christie(2009))aresimilar,highlydetailed
packages.
However,theseveryrealisticapproachesrequireexten-
sivecomputationpower,andoccasionallyeventheuse
ofsupercomputers.Forinstance,CARPneeds6.4hin
a64-processormachinetosimulatejust200msofcardiac
activity(Mitchell(2010)).
Toreducecomputationaleffort,Balakrishnanetal.re-
centlyintroduceda2Dwhole-heartmodelinMatlabthat
focusesonthesimulationofcardiacarrhythmias(Balakr-
ishnanetal.(2015)).Themodelusesaphenomenological
approachtocomputeelectricalsignalpropagation,i.e.,
cellsindiscreteformlinearlyexchangecurrentwitheight
neighboringcells.Soviljetal.(2014)describesa2Dsim-
plified(intermsofanatomy)approachthatalsocovers
thesurroundingtorsotocomputerealisticECGgenera-
tion,albeitapplyingthenumericallydemandingbidomain
equations.Weadoptedthismodelforacomprehensive
WPWstudyimplementation,sinceitrepresentsagood
compromisebetweenrealisticsimulation,computational
loadandflexibility.WerefertoTrayanova(2011),Clayton
etal.(2011),andHenriquez(2014)forreviewsonwhole-
heartmodeling.
DuetoWPW’sinnocuousnesscomparedtootherar-
rhythmias(e.g.,ventricularfibrillation),thereareonly
fewWPWsimulationapproaches,andtheseusemainly
cellularautomata(Zhuetal.(2007),Fleischmannetal.
(1996)).Tofillthisresearchgap,weexaminetheWPW
syndromeusinganaccuratebidomainmodel,simplifying
itonlyenoughtoachievereasonablecomputationaltimes.
WeextendtheSovilj-Modelbymeansof:
•
geometricadoptionwithanaccessorypathway(so
calledbundleofKent),
6th IFAC Conference on
Foundations of Systems Biology in Engineering
October 9-12, 2016. Magdeburg, Germany
Copyright © 2016 IFAC
1
ASimplified2DHeartModelofthe
Wolff-Parkinson-WhiteSyndrome
ClemensZeile
∗
EberhardScholz
∗∗
SebastianSager
∗
∗
MathematicsDepartment,UniversityofMagdeburg,39106Germany
(e-mail:clemens.zeile@ovgu.de;sager@ovgu.de).
∗∗
CardiologyDepartment,UniversityHospitalHeidelberg,69120
Germany,(e-mail:eberhard.scholz@med.uni-heidelberg.de)
Abstract:
Theenormousprogressmadeincomputationalcardiacelectrophysiologyduringthe
pastdecadeshasresultedinadiverserangeofmodelsandnumericalmethods.Ingeneral,
researchershaveelaboratedhighlycomplexanddetailedsimulatorsonthecellandtissuelevel.
Incontrast,therehasbeenalackofsimplifiedwhole-heartmodelsthatstudyspecificheart
arrhythmias.Inthisstudy,weapproximatetheelectrophysiologyofWolff-Parkinson-White
Syndromewithsuchamodel.Inordertoreproducethecardiacanomaly,weapplytheso-called
bidomainapproachinvolvingpartialdifferentialequations.Resultsshowthatthesimulations
arerealistic,bothinECGgenerationandelectricactivationsequence.Ourassessmentofthe
modelimplementationtakesintoaccountparameterandgeometryvariation,whichsupportsa
realisticviewofmedicalaspects.Ourinsilicoanalysisthushelpsprovideclearinsightsintothe
mechanismsofarrhythmiasandassociatedECGchanges.
Keywords:
Medicalsystems,heart,electricalsignalpropagation,cardiacarrhythmias,
electrocardiogram,Wolff-Parkinson-Whitesyndrome
1.INTRODUCTION
Cardiovasculardisease(CVD)accountedfor17.3million
deathsin2013,makingitapparentlytheleadingcause
ofdeathglobally(Naghavietal.(2014)).Withagrowing
numberofsufferer,itisestimatedthat90%ofCVDis
preventable(McGilletal.(2008)).Cardiacarrhythmias
constituteamajorfactorforsuddencardiacdeath(SCD).
Oneofthesearrhythmias,atrio-ventricularreciprocat-
ingtachycardia(AVRT),isassociatedwiththeWolff-
Parkinson-White(WPW)syndrome.Here,syndromein-
volvesanaccessoryelectricalconductionpathway(AP)
betweenatriumandventricleleadingtoprematurelystim-
ulated,andthuscontracted,ventricles.
SymptomsofWPWincludepalpitationsandsyncope.
Onlyinrarecases(lessthan0.6%,Naghavietal.(2014))
isWPWfatal,forexample,whenaccompaniedbyatrial
fibrillation.Acommonmeansofdetectingthediseaseisa
slurredupstrokeintheelectrocardiogram,referredtoasa
”deltawave”.ForfurtherdetailsonWPW,wereferthe
readertoPageetal.(2015).
TheopensourceframeworkChaste(GaryRMirams
(2013))isanexcellenttoolformultiscaleandcomplex
simulations,andonethatcanhandleverydetailedcardiac
electrophysiologycomputations.Ittakesintoaccounta
varietyofanatomicalandphysiologicalfeaturessuchas
fiberorientation,cellheterogeneities,anisotropy,aswell
asrestitutionproperties.ThesimulatorsacCELLerate
(Seemannetal.(2010)),CARP(Vigmond(2003)),and
OpenCMISS(Christie(2009))aresimilar,highlydetailed
packages.
However,theseveryrealisticapproachesrequireexten-
sivecomputationpower,andoccasionallyeventheuse
ofsupercomputers.Forinstance,CARPneeds6.4hin
a64-processormachinetosimulatejust200msofcardiac
activity(Mitchell(2010)).
Toreducecomputationaleffort,Balakrishnanetal.re-
centlyintroduceda2Dwhole-heartmodelinMatlabthat
focusesonthesimulationofcardiacarrhythmias(Balakr-
ishnanetal.(2015)).Themodelusesaphenomenological
approachtocomputeelectricalsignalpropagation,i.e.,
cellsindiscreteformlinearlyexchangecurrentwitheight
neighboringcells.Soviljetal.(2014)describesa2Dsim-
plified(intermsofanatomy)approachthatalsocovers
thesurroundingtorsotocomputerealisticECGgenera-
tion,albeitapplyingthenumericallydemandingbidomain
equations.Weadoptedthismodelforacomprehensive
WPWstudyimplementation,sinceitrepresentsagood
compromisebetweenrealisticsimulation,computational
loadandflexibility.WerefertoTrayanova(2011),Clayton
etal.(2011),andHenriquez(2014)forreviewsonwhole-
heartmodeling.
DuetoWPW’sinnocuousnesscomparedtootherar-
rhythmias(e.g.,ventricularfibrillation),thereareonly
fewWPWsimulationapproaches,andtheseusemainly
cellularautomata(Zhuetal.(2007),Fleischmannetal.
(1996)).Tofillthisresearchgap,weexaminetheWPW
syndromeusinganaccuratebidomainmodel,simplifying
itonlyenoughtoachievereasonablecomputationaltimes.
WeextendtheSovilj-Modelbymeansof:
•
geometricadoptionwithanaccessorypathway(so
calledbundleofKent),
6th IFAC Conference on
Foundations of Systems Biology in Engineering
October 9-12, 2016. Magdeburg, Germany
Copyright © 2016 IFAC
1
ClemensZeile
EberhardScholz
SebastianSager
Clemens Zeile et al. / IFAC-PapersOnLine 49-26 (2016)
026
–
031
27
ASimplified2DHeartModelofthe
Wolff-Parkinson-WhiteSyndrome
ClemensZeile
∗
EberhardScholz
∗∗
SebastianSager
∗
∗
MathematicsDepartment,UniversityofMagdeburg,39106Germany
(e-mail:clemens.zeile@ovgu.de;sager@ovgu.de).
∗∗
CardiologyDepartment,UniversityHospitalHeidelberg,69120
Germany,(e-mail:eberhard.scholz@med.uni-heidelberg.de)
Abstract:
Theenormousprogressmadeincomputationalcardiacelectrophysiologyduringthe
pastdecadeshasresultedinadiverserangeofmodelsandnumericalmethods.Ingeneral,
researchershaveelaboratedhighlycomplexanddetailedsimulatorsonthecellandtissuelevel.
Incontrast,therehasbeenalackofsimplifiedwhole-heartmodelsthatstudyspecificheart
arrhythmias.Inthisstudy,weapproximatetheelectrophysiologyofWolff-Parkinson-White
Syndromewithsuchamodel.Inordertoreproducethecardiacanomaly,weapplytheso-called
bidomainapproachinvolvingpartialdifferentialequations.Resultsshowthatthesimulations
arerealistic,bothinECGgenerationandelectricactivationsequence.Ourassessmentofthe
modelimplementationtakesintoaccountparameterandgeometryvariation,whichsupportsa
realisticviewofmedicalaspects.Ourinsilicoanalysisthushelpsprovideclearinsightsintothe
mechanismsofarrhythmiasandassociatedECGchanges.
Keywords:
Medicalsystems,heart,electricalsignalpropagation,cardiacarrhythmias,
electrocardiogram,Wolff-Parkinson-Whitesyndrome
1.INTRODUCTION
Cardiovasculardisease(CVD)accountedfor17.3million
deathsin2013,makingitapparentlytheleadingcause
ofdeathglobally(Naghavietal.(2014)).Withagrowing
numberofsufferer,itisestimatedthat90%ofCVDis
preventable(McGilletal.(2008)).Cardiacarrhythmias
constituteamajorfactorforsuddencardiacdeath(SCD).
Oneofthesearrhythmias,atrio-ventricularreciprocat-
ingtachycardia(AVRT),isassociatedwiththeWolff-
Parkinson-White(WPW)syndrome.Here,syndromein-
volvesanaccessoryelectricalconductionpathway(AP)
betweenatriumandventricleleadingtoprematurelystim-
ulated,andthuscontracted,ventricles.
SymptomsofWPWincludepalpitationsandsyncope.
Onlyinrarecases(lessthan0.6%,Naghavietal.(2014))
isWPWfatal,forexample,whenaccompaniedbyatrial
fibrillation.Acommonmeansofdetectingthediseaseisa
slurredupstrokeintheelectrocardiogram,referredtoasa
”deltawave”.ForfurtherdetailsonWPW,wereferthe
readertoPageetal.(2015).
TheopensourceframeworkChaste(GaryRMirams
(2013))isanexcellenttoolformultiscaleandcomplex
simulations,andonethatcanhandleverydetailedcardiac
electrophysiologycomputations.Ittakesintoaccounta
varietyofanatomicalandphysiologicalfeaturessuchas
fiberorientation,cellheterogeneities,anisotropy,aswell
asrestitutionproperties.ThesimulatorsacCELLerate
(Seemannetal.(2010)),CARP(Vigmond(2003)),and
OpenCMISS(Christie(2009))aresimilar,highlydetailed
packages.
However,theseveryrealisticapproachesrequireexten-
sivecomputationpower,andoccasionallyeventheuse
ofsupercomputers.Forinstance,CARPneeds6.4hin
a64-processormachinetosimulatejust200msofcardiac
activity(Mitchell(2010)).
Toreducecomputationaleffort,Balakrishnanetal.re-
centlyintroduceda2Dwhole-heartmodelinMatlabthat
focusesonthesimulationofcardiacarrhythmias(Balakr-
ishnanetal.(2015)).Themodelusesaphenomenological
approachtocomputeelectricalsignalpropagation,i.e.,
cellsindiscreteformlinearlyexchangecurrentwitheight
neighboringcells.Soviljetal.(2014)describesa2Dsim-
plified(intermsofanatomy)approachthatalsocovers
thesurroundingtorsotocomputerealisticECGgenera-
tion,albeitapplyingthenumericallydemandingbidomain
equations.Weadoptedthismodelforacomprehensive
WPWstudyimplementation,sinceitrepresentsagood
compromisebetweenrealisticsimulation,computational
loadandflexibility.WerefertoTrayanova(2011),Clayton
etal.(2011),andHenriquez(2014)forreviewsonwhole-
heartmodeling.
DuetoWPW’sinnocuousnesscomparedtootherar-
rhythmias(e.g.,ventricularfibrillation),thereareonly
fewWPWsimulationapproaches,andtheseusemainly
cellularautomata(Zhuetal.(2007),Fleischmannetal.
(1996)).Tofillthisresearchgap,weexaminetheWPW
syndromeusinganaccuratebidomainmodel,simplifying
itonlyenoughtoachievereasonablecomputationaltimes.
WeextendtheSovilj-Modelbymeansof:
•
geometricadoptionwithanaccessorypathway(so
calledbundleofKent),
6th IFAC Conference on
Foundations of Systems Biology in Engineering
October 9-12, 2016. Magdeburg, Germany
Copyright © 2016 IFAC
1
ASimplified2DHeartModelofthe
Wolff-Parkinson-WhiteSyndrome
ClemensZeile
∗
EberhardScholz
∗∗
SebastianSager
∗
∗
MathematicsDepartment,UniversityofMagdeburg,39106Germany
(e-mail:clemens.zeile@ovgu.de;sager@ovgu.de).
∗∗
CardiologyDepartment,UniversityHospitalHeidelberg,69120
Germany,(e-mail:eberhard.scholz@med.uni-heidelberg.de)
Abstract:
Theenormousprogressmadeincomputationalcardiacelectrophysiologyduringthe
pastdecadeshasresultedinadiverserangeofmodelsandnumericalmethods.Ingeneral,
researchershaveelaboratedhighlycomplexanddetailedsimulatorsonthecellandtissuelevel.
Incontrast,therehasbeenalackofsimplifiedwhole-heartmodelsthatstudyspecificheart
arrhythmias.Inthisstudy,weapproximatetheelectrophysiologyofWolff-Parkinson-White
Syndromewithsuchamodel.Inordertoreproducethecardiacanomaly,weapplytheso-called
bidomainapproachinvolvingpartialdifferentialequations.Resultsshowthatthesimulations
arerealistic,bothinECGgenerationandelectricactivationsequence.Ourassessmentofthe
modelimplementationtakesintoaccountparameterandgeometryvariation,whichsupportsa
realisticviewofmedicalaspects.Ourinsilicoanalysisthushelpsprovideclearinsightsintothe
mechanismsofarrhythmiasandassociatedECGchanges.
Keywords:
Medicalsystems,heart,electricalsignalpropagation,cardiacarrhythmias,
electrocardiogram,Wolff-Parkinson-Whitesyndrome
1.INTRODUCTION
Cardiovasculardisease(CVD)accountedfor17.3million
deathsin2013,makingitapparentlytheleadingcause
ofdeathglobally(Naghavietal.(2014)).Withagrowing
numberofsufferer,itisestimatedthat90%ofCVDis
preventable(McGilletal.(2008)).Cardiacarrhythmias
constituteamajorfactorforsuddencardiacdeath(SCD).
Oneofthesearrhythmias,atrio-ventricularreciprocat-
ingtachycardia(AVRT),isassociatedwiththeWolff-
Parkinson-White(WPW)syndrome.Here,syndromein-
volvesanaccessoryelectricalconductionpathway(AP)
betweenatriumandventricleleadingtoprematurelystim-
ulated,andthuscontracted,ventricles.
SymptomsofWPWincludepalpitationsandsyncope.
Onlyinrarecases(lessthan0.6%,Naghavietal.(2014))
isWPWfatal,forexample,whenaccompaniedbyatrial
fibrillation.Acommonmeansofdetectingthediseaseisa
slurredupstrokeintheelectrocardiogram,referredtoasa
”deltawave”.ForfurtherdetailsonWPW,wereferthe
readertoPageetal.(2015).
TheopensourceframeworkChaste(GaryRMirams
(2013))isanexcellenttoolformultiscaleandcomplex
simulations,andonethatcanhandleverydetailedcardiac
electrophysiologycomputations.Ittakesintoaccounta
varietyofanatomicalandphysiologicalfeaturessuchas
fiberorientation,cellheterogeneities,anisotropy,aswell
asrestitutionproperties.ThesimulatorsacCELLerate
(Seemannetal.(2010)),CARP(Vigmond(2003)),and
OpenCMISS(Christie(2009))aresimilar,highlydetailed
packages.
However,theseveryrealisticapproachesrequireexten-
sivecomputationpower,andoccasionallyeventheuse
ofsupercomputers.Forinstance,CARPneeds6.4hin
a64-processormachinetosimulatejust200msofcardiac
activity(Mitchell(2010)).
Toreducecomputationaleffort,Balakrishnanetal.re-
centlyintroduceda2Dwhole-heartmodelinMatlabthat
focusesonthesimulationofcardiacarrhythmias(Balakr-
ishnanetal.(2015)).Themodelusesaphenomenological
approachtocomputeelectricalsignalpropagation,i.e.,
cellsindiscreteformlinearlyexchangecurrentwitheight
neighboringcells.Soviljetal.(2014)describesa2Dsim-
plified(intermsofanatomy)approachthatalsocovers
thesurroundingtorsotocomputerealisticECGgenera-
tion,albeitapplyingthenumericallydemandingbidomain
equations.Weadoptedthismodelforacomprehensive
WPWstudyimplementation,sinceitrepresentsagood
compromisebetweenrealisticsimulation,computational
loadandflexibility.WerefertoTrayanova(2011),Clayton
etal.(2011),andHenriquez(2014)forreviewsonwhole-
heartmodeling.
DuetoWPW’sinnocuousnesscomparedtootherar-
rhythmias(e.g.,ventricularfibrillation),thereareonly
fewWPWsimulationapproaches,andtheseusemainly
cellularautomata(Zhuetal.(2007),Fleischmannetal.
(1996)).Tofillthisresearchgap,weexaminetheWPW
syndromeusinganaccuratebidomainmodel,simplifying
itonlyenoughtoachievereasonablecomputationaltimes.
WeextendtheSovilj-Modelbymeansof:
•
geometricadoptionwithanaccessorypathway(so
calledbundleofKent),
6th IFAC Conference on
Foundations of Systems Biology in Engineering
October 9-12, 2016. Magdeburg, Germany
Copyright © 2016 IFAC
1
ASimplified2DHeartModelofthe
Wolff-Parkinson-WhiteSyndrome
ClemensZeile
∗
EberhardScholz
∗∗
SebastianSager
∗
∗
MathematicsDepartment,UniversityofMagdeburg,39106Germany
(e-mail:clemens.zeile@ovgu.de;sager@ovgu.de).
∗∗
CardiologyDepartment,UniversityHospitalHeidelberg,69120
Germany,(e-mail:eberhard.scholz@med.uni-heidelberg.de)
Abstract:
Theenormousprogressmadeincomputationalcardiacelectrophysiologyduringthe
pastdecadeshasresultedinadiverserangeofmodelsandnumericalmethods.Ingeneral,
researchershaveelaboratedhighlycomplexanddetailedsimulatorsonthecellandtissuelevel.
Incontrast,therehasbeenalackofsimplifiedwhole-heartmodelsthatstudyspecificheart
arrhythmias.Inthisstudy,weapproximatetheelectrophysiologyofWolff-Parkinson-White
Syndromewithsuchamodel.Inordertoreproducethecardiacanomaly,weapplytheso-called
bidomainapproachinvolvingpartialdifferentialequations.Resultsshowthatthesimulations
arerealistic,bothinECGgenerationandelectricactivationsequence.Ourassessmentofthe
modelimplementationtakesintoaccountparameterandgeometryvariation,whichsupportsa
realisticviewofmedicalaspects.Ourinsilicoanalysisthushelpsprovideclearinsightsintothe
mechanismsofarrhythmiasandassociatedECGchanges.
Keywords:
Medicalsystems,heart,electricalsignalpropagation,cardiacarrhythmias,
electrocardiogram,Wolff-Parkinson-Whitesyndrome
1.INTRODUCTION
Cardiovasculardisease(CVD)accountedfor17.3million
deathsin2013,makingitapparentlytheleadingcause
ofdeathglobally(Naghavietal.(2014)).Withagrowing
numberofsufferer,itisestimatedthat90%ofCVDis
preventable(McGilletal.(2008)).Cardiacarrhythmias
constituteamajorfactorforsuddencardiacdeath(SCD).
Oneofthesearrhythmias,atrio-ventricularreciprocat-
ingtachycardia(AVRT),isassociatedwiththeWolff-
Parkinson-White(WPW)syndrome.Here,syndromein-
volvesanaccessoryelectricalconductionpathway(AP)
betweenatriumandventricleleadingtoprematurelystim-
ulated,andthuscontracted,ventricles.
SymptomsofWPWincludepalpitationsandsyncope.
Onlyinrarecases(lessthan0.6%,Naghavietal.(2014))
isWPWfatal,forexample,whenaccompaniedbyatrial
fibrillation.Acommonmeansofdetectingthediseaseisa
slurredupstrokeintheelectrocardiogram,referredtoasa
”deltawave”.ForfurtherdetailsonWPW,wereferthe
readertoPageetal.(2015).
TheopensourceframeworkChaste(GaryRMirams
(2013))isanexcellenttoolformultiscaleandcomplex
simulations,andonethatcanhandleverydetailedcardiac
electrophysiologycomputations.Ittakesintoaccounta
varietyofanatomicalandphysiologicalfeaturessuchas
fiberorientation,cellheterogeneities,anisotropy,aswell
asrestitutionproperties.ThesimulatorsacCELLerate
(Seemannetal.(2010)),CARP(Vigmond(2003)),and
OpenCMISS(Christie(2009))aresimilar,highlydetailed
packages.
However,theseveryrealisticapproachesrequireexten-
sivecomputationpower,andoccasionallyeventheuse
ofsupercomputers.Forinstance,CARPneeds6.4hin
a64-processormachinetosimulatejust200msofcardiac
activity(Mitchell(2010)).
Toreducecomputationaleffort,Balakrishnanetal.re-
centlyintroduceda2Dwhole-heartmodelinMatlabthat
focusesonthesimulationofcardiacarrhythmias(Balakr-
ishnanetal.(2015)).Themodelusesaphenomenological
approachtocomputeelectricalsignalpropagation,i.e.,
cellsindiscreteformlinearlyexchangecurrentwitheight
neighboringcells.Soviljetal.(2014)describesa2Dsim-
plified(intermsofanatomy)approachthatalsocovers
thesurroundingtorsotocomputerealisticECGgenera-
tion,albeitapplyingthenumericallydemandingbidomain
equations.Weadoptedthismodelforacomprehensive
WPWstudyimplementation,sinceitrepresentsagood
compromisebetweenrealisticsimulation,computational
loadandflexibility.WerefertoTrayanova(2011),Clayton
etal.(2011),andHenriquez(2014)forreviewsonwhole-
heartmodeling.
DuetoWPW’sinnocuousnesscomparedtootherar-
rhythmias(e.g.,ventricularfibrillation),thereareonly
fewWPWsimulationapproaches,andtheseusemainly
cellularautomata(Zhuetal.(2007),Fleischmannetal.
(1996)).Tofillthisresearchgap,weexaminetheWPW
syndromeusinganaccuratebidomainmodel,simplifying
itonlyenoughtoachievereasonablecomputationaltimes.
WeextendtheSovilj-Modelbymeansof:
•
geometricadoptionwithanaccessorypathway(so
calledbundleofKent),
6th IFAC Conference on
Foundations of Systems Biology in Engineering
October 9-12, 2016. Magdeburg, Germany
Copyright © 2016 IFAC
1
ASimplified2DHeartModelofthe
Wolff-Parkinson-WhiteSyndrome
ClemensZeile
∗
EberhardScholz
∗∗
SebastianSager
∗
∗
MathematicsDepartment,UniversityofMagdeburg,39106Germany
(e-mail:clemens.zeile@ovgu.de;sager@ovgu.de).
∗∗
CardiologyDepartment,UniversityHospitalHeidelberg,69120
Germany,(e-mail:eberhard.scholz@med.uni-heidelberg.de)
Abstract:
Theenormousprogressmadeincomputationalcardiacelectrophysiologyduringthe
pastdecadeshasresultedinadiverserangeofmodelsandnumericalmethods.Ingeneral,
researchershaveelaboratedhighlycomplexanddetailedsimulatorsonthecellandtissuelevel.
Incontrast,therehasbeenalackofsimplifiedwhole-heartmodelsthatstudyspecificheart
arrhythmias.Inthisstudy,weapproximatetheelectrophysiologyofWolff-Parkinson-White
Syndromewithsuchamodel.Inordertoreproducethecardiacanomaly,weapplytheso-called
bidomainapproachinvolvingpartialdifferentialequations.Resultsshowthatthesimulations
arerealistic,bothinECGgenerationandelectricactivationsequence.Ourassessmentofthe
modelimplementationtakesintoaccountparameterandgeometryvariation,whichsupportsa
realisticviewofmedicalaspects.Ourinsilicoanalysisthushelpsprovideclearinsightsintothe
mechanismsofarrhythmiasandassociatedECGchanges.
Keywords:
Medicalsystems,heart,electricalsignalpropagation,cardiacarrhythmias,
electrocardiogram,Wolff-Parkinson-Whitesyndrome
1.INTRODUCTION
Cardiovasculardisease(CVD)accountedfor17.3million
deathsin2013,makingitapparentlytheleadingcause
ofdeathglobally(Naghavietal.(2014)).Withagrowing
numberofsufferer,itisestimatedthat90%ofCVDis
preventable(McGilletal.(2008)).Cardiacarrhythmias
constituteamajorfactorforsuddencardiacdeath(SCD).
Oneofthesearrhythmias,atrio-ventricularreciprocat-
ingtachycardia(AVRT),isassociatedwiththeWolff-
Parkinson-White(WPW)syndrome.Here,syndromein-
volvesanaccessoryelectricalconductionpathway(AP)
betweenatriumandventricleleadingtoprematurelystim-
ulated,andthuscontracted,ventricles.
SymptomsofWPWincludepalpitationsandsyncope.
Onlyinrarecases(lessthan0.6%,Naghavietal.(2014))
isWPWfatal,forexample,whenaccompaniedbyatrial
fibrillation.Acommonmeansofdetectingthediseaseisa
slurredupstrokeintheelectrocardiogram,referredtoasa
”deltawave”.ForfurtherdetailsonWPW,wereferthe
readertoPageetal.(2015).
TheopensourceframeworkChaste(GaryRMirams
(2013))isanexcellenttoolformultiscaleandcomplex
simulations,andonethatcanhandleverydetailedcardiac
electrophysiologycomputations.Ittakesintoaccounta
varietyofanatomicalandphysiologicalfeaturessuchas
fiberorientation,cellheterogeneities,anisotropy,aswell
asrestitutionproperties.ThesimulatorsacCELLerate
(Seemannetal.(2010)),CARP(Vigmond(2003)),and
OpenCMISS(Christie(2009))aresimilar,highlydetailed
packages.
However,theseveryrealisticapproachesrequireexten-
sivecomputationpower,andoccasionallyeventheuse
ofsupercomputers.Forinstance,CARPneeds6.4hin
a64-processormachinetosimulatejust200msofcardiac
activity(Mitchell(2010)).
Toreducecomputationaleffort,Balakrishnanetal.re-
centlyintroduceda2Dwhole-heartmodelinMatlabthat
focusesonthesimulationofcardiacarrhythmias(Balakr-
ishnanetal.(2015)).Themodelusesaphenomenological
approachtocomputeelectricalsignalpropagation,i.e.,
cellsindiscreteformlinearlyexchangecurrentwitheight
neighboringcells.Soviljetal.(2014)describesa2Dsim-
plified(intermsofanatomy)approachthatalsocovers
thesurroundingtorsotocomputerealisticECGgenera-
tion,albeitapplyingthenumericallydemandingbidomain
equations.Weadoptedthismodelforacomprehensive
WPWstudyimplementation,sinceitrepresentsagood
compromisebetweenrealisticsimulation,computational
loadandflexibility.WerefertoTrayanova(2011),Clayton
etal.(2011),andHenriquez(2014)forreviewsonwhole-
heartmodeling.
DuetoWPW’sinnocuousnesscomparedtootherar-
rhythmias(e.g.,ventricularfibrillation),thereareonly
fewWPWsimulationapproaches,andtheseusemainly
cellularautomata(Zhuetal.(2007),Fleischmannetal.
(1996)).Tofillthisresearchgap,weexaminetheWPW
syndromeusinganaccuratebidomainmodel,simplifying
itonlyenoughtoachievereasonablecomputationaltimes.
WeextendtheSovilj-Modelbymeansof:
•
geometricadoptionwithanaccessorypathway(so
calledbundleofKent),
6th IFAC Conference on
Foundations of Systems Biology in Engineering
October 9-12, 2016. Magdeburg, Germany
Copyright © 2016 IFAC
1
ASimplified2DHeartModelofthe
Wolff-Parkinson-WhiteSyndrome
ClemensZeile
∗
EberhardScholz
∗∗
SebastianSager
∗
∗
MathematicsDepartment,UniversityofMagdeburg,39106Germany
(e-mail:clemens.zeile@ovgu.de;sager@ovgu.de).
∗∗
CardiologyDepartment,UniversityHospitalHeidelberg,69120
Germany,(e-mail:eberhard.scholz@med.uni-heidelberg.de)
Abstract:
Theenormousprogressmadeincomputationalcardiacelectrophysiologyduringthe
pastdecadeshasresultedinadiverserangeofmodelsandnumericalmethods.Ingeneral,
researchershaveelaboratedhighlycomplexanddetailedsimulatorsonthecellandtissuelevel.
Incontrast,therehasbeenalackofsimplifiedwhole-heartmodelsthatstudyspecificheart
arrhythmias.Inthisstudy,weapproximatetheelectrophysiologyofWolff-Parkinson-White
Syndromewithsuchamodel.Inordertoreproducethecardiacanomaly,weapplytheso-called
bidomainapproachinvolvingpartialdifferentialequations.Resultsshowthatthesimulations
arerealistic,bothinECGgenerationandelectricactivationsequence.Ourassessmentofthe
modelimplementationtakesintoaccountparameterandgeometryvariation,whichsupportsa
realisticviewofmedicalaspects.Ourinsilicoanalysisthushelpsprovideclearinsightsintothe
mechanismsofarrhythmiasandassociatedECGchanges.
Keywords:
Medicalsystems,heart,electricalsignalpropagation,cardiacarrhythmias,
electrocardiogram,Wolff-Parkinson-Whitesyndrome
1.INTRODUCTION
Cardiovasculardisease(CVD)accountedfor17.3million
deathsin2013,makingitapparentlytheleadingcause
ofdeathglobally(Naghavietal.(2014)).Withagrowing
numberofsufferer,itisestimatedthat90%ofCVDis
preventable(McGilletal.(2008)).Cardiacarrhythmias
constituteamajorfactorforsuddencardiacdeath(SCD).
Oneofthesearrhythmias,atrio-ventricularreciprocat-
ingtachycardia(AVRT),isassociatedwiththeWolff-
Parkinson-White(WPW)syndrome.Here,syndromein-
volvesanaccessoryelectricalconductionpathway(AP)
betweenatriumandventricleleadingtoprematurelystim-
ulated,andthuscontracted,ventricles.
SymptomsofWPWincludepalpitationsandsyncope.
Onlyinrarecases(lessthan0.6%,Naghavietal.(2014))
isWPWfatal,forexample,whenaccompaniedbyatrial
fibrillation.Acommonmeansofdetectingthediseaseisa
slurredupstrokeintheelectrocardiogram,referredtoasa
”deltawave”.ForfurtherdetailsonWPW,wereferthe
readertoPageetal.(2015).
TheopensourceframeworkChaste(GaryRMirams
(2013))isanexcellenttoolformultiscaleandcomplex
simulations,andonethatcanhandleverydetailedcardiac
electrophysiologycomputations.Ittakesintoaccounta
varietyofanatomicalandphysiologicalfeaturessuchas
fiberorientation,cellheterogeneities,anisotropy,aswell
asrestitutionproperties.ThesimulatorsacCELLerate
(Seemannetal.(2010)),CARP(Vigmond(2003)),and
OpenCMISS(Christie(2009))aresimilar,highlydetailed
packages.
However,theseveryrealisticapproachesrequireexten-
sivecomputationpower,andoccasionallyeventheuse
ofsupercomputers.Forinstance,CARPneeds6.4hin
a64-processormachinetosimulatejust200msofcardiac
activity(Mitchell(2010)).
Toreducecomputationaleffort,Balakrishnanetal.re-
centlyintroduceda2Dwhole-heartmodelinMatlabthat
focusesonthesimulationofcardiacarrhythmias(Balakr-
ishnanetal.(2015)).Themodelusesaphenomenological
approachtocomputeelectricalsignalpropagation,i.e.,
cellsindiscreteformlinearlyexchangecurrentwitheight
neighboringcells.Soviljetal.(2014)describesa2Dsim-
plified(intermsofanatomy)approachthatalsocovers
thesurroundingtorsotocomputerealisticECGgenera-
tion,albeitapplyingthenumericallydemandingbidomain
equations.Weadoptedthismodelforacomprehensive
WPWstudyimplementation,sinceitrepresentsagood
compromisebetweenrealisticsimulation,computational
loadandflexibility.WerefertoTrayanova(2011),Clayton
etal.(2011),andHenriquez(2014)forreviewsonwhole-
heartmodeling.
DuetoWPW’sinnocuousnesscomparedtootherar-
rhythmias(e.g.,ventricularfibrillation),thereareonly
fewWPWsimulationapproaches,andtheseusemainly
cellularautomata(Zhuetal.(2007),Fleischmannetal.
(1996)).Tofillthisresearchgap,weexaminetheWPW
syndromeusinganaccuratebidomainmodel,simplifying
itonlyenoughtoachievereasonablecomputationaltimes.
WeextendtheSovilj-Modelbymeansof:
•
geometricadoptionwithanaccessorypathway(so
calledbundleofKent),
6th IFAC Conference on
Foundations of Systems Biology in Engineering
October 9-12, 2016. Magdeburg, Germany
Copyright © 2016 IFAC
1
•
variationinposition,sizeandconductionvelocity
parametersofthebundleofKent,
•
computationofintracardiacelectrograms,
•
inductionofextrasystoletosimulateAVRT.
Fromsimulations,wecandetectrealisticECGbehavior,
specifically,thecharacteristicslurredupstrokeoftheQRS
complexcalleddeltawave.Toourknowledgethisisthe
firstWPWevaluationwithbothextensiveandsimplified
bidomainapproachesincludingtorsomodeling.Thesimu-
lationssupportaholisticviewontheconnectionsbetween
themedicalanomalyanditsECGmorphology.
2.METHODS
Inthissection,wedescribethemainfeaturesoftheSovilj
modelandreferthereadertoSoviljetal.(2014)forfurther
details.Wealsodescribeourmodelextensions.
2.1Anatomicalmodeling
Themodelcomprisestorso,lungs,heartandbloodinthe
heartchamber.Theheartitselfisrepresentedbyindivid-
ualareasforthesinoatrialnode,atria,atrio-ventricular
(AV)node,ventricles,bundleofHis,bundlebranchesand
Purkinjefibers,compareFigure1.Ourcardiacgeometry
hasarangeof11.5cminlengthand9cminwidth.
WemodifiedthemodelwithanAPbetweenatriaand
ventricles,whichisvariedinsizeandposition.
Fig.1.Anatomicalmodeling:leftlateralaccessorypath-
wayinblue(1),sinoatrialnode(2),atria(3),AVnode
(4),bundleofHis(5),bundlebranches(6),Purkinje
fibers(7),ventricles(8),andpartsoflungs(9).
2.2Governingequations
Thebidomainmodeliscrucialfortheelectricalpropaga-
tionmodelingoftissue.Itdistinguishesintracellularfrom
extracellularspaceregardingconductivitespropertiesand
anisotropy.Initsparabolic-ellipticformtransmembrane
voltage
V
andextracellularvoltage
φ
e
aregivenby
∇·
((
σ
i
+
σ
e
)
∇
φ
e
+
σ
i
∇
V
)=
I
(vol)
total
,
(1)
χ
(
C
m
∂V
∂t
+
I
ion
(
u,V
)
−∇·
(
σ
i
∇
(
V
+
φ
e
))
)
=
I
(vol)
i
,
(2)
where
V
=
φ
i
−
φ
e
and
φ
i
denotestheintracellularvoltage
(comparePathmanathanetal.(2010)).Theparameters
inthissystemaretheintracellularconductivitytensor
σ
i
,theextracellularconductivitytensor
σ
e
,themembrane
capacitanceperunitarea
C
m
,andthethesurface-area-to-
volumeratio
χ
.
u
denotesasetofcell-levelvariables,which
influence
I
ion
(
u,V
),theioniccurrentperunitsurfacearea.
Thesourceterm
I
(vol)
i
reflectstheintracellularstimulus
perunitvolumeand
I
(vol)
total
=
I
(vol)
i
+
I
(vol)
e
isthesumof
bothintracellularandextracellularstimuli.Let
H
denote
theregionoccupiedbythecardiactissue.Thevariables
I
(vol)
total
,I
(vol)
i
,I
(vol)
e
,
and
I
ion
arealldefinedon
H
anddepend
ontime.
Westressthattheexistenceofastimuliterminthe
modelisanextensioncomparedtotheSovijlmodel.
Itisnecessarytomodelextrasystolesandthereforeto
simulateAVRT.Theseequationsareappliedonlyon
themyocardiumarea.Onthecelllevel,themodified
FitzHughNagumo(FHN)equationsareused
∂u
∂t
=
ke
(
V
−
B
A
−
du
−
b
)
,
(3)
I
ion
=
kc
1
(
V
−
B
)
[
a
−
V
−
B
A
][
1
−
V
−
B
A
]
+
kc
2
u,
(4)
where
a,b,c
1
,c
2
,d,e,k,A,B,
areparameters.FortheAP,
weappliedthephysiologicalparametersfromBaarsetal.
(2011)(seeTable1).Wevarytheconductionparameters
Table1.APparameters
abc
1
c
2
dekABσ
i
σ
e
0.1302.6110.01140-8510
3
2-802-80
torepresenthigherandlowervelocitiesthaninthenormal
ventricularconductionsystem,whichissetto8mS/m.As
indicatedinTable1,
σ
i
and
σ
e
rangesthenbetween2and
80mS/m.Theextracellularvoltage
φ
e
inthetorso,lungs,
andblood,i.e.,thepassivevolumeconductordomains,is
givenby
∇·
(
−
σ
p
∇
φ
e
)=0
,
(5)
where
σ
p
denotesthedomainspecificelectricalconductiv-
ity.Fortheboundaryconditionsofthetorsoandheart,we
assumezero-fluxfor
φ
i
andthattheoutwardfluxequals
theinwardfluxfor
φ
e
.
2.3IntracardiacElectrograms
Inordertomatchsimulationswithclinicalpractice,we
calculatetheusualintracardiacelectrogramsresulting
fromcatheters.Forthis,welocateelectrodesinthemodel
atthehighrightatrium(HRA),rightventricularapex
(RVA),bundleofHis(HIS),andcoronarysinus(CS).The
electrodesarebipolar,i.e.,
HRA
=
HRA
1
−
HRA
2
,and
soon.Hence,ineachregion,thereisapairofelectrodes
(seeFig.3)thatisgroundedbythereferenceelectrode
attherightleg.Sincethecoronarysinusisnotcovered
anatomicallyinthemodel,weplacedthecorresponding
electrodesbetweenthebloodchambersoftheleftatrium
andventricle.
2016 IFAC FOSBE
October 9-12, 2016. Magdeburg, Germany
2
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