Vulnerability in one-dimensional excitable media
Potentially life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias can be iniated with stimuli timed to occur during the "vulnerable window (VW)". We defined VW as the time interval between the "conditioning" and "test" stimuli following in sequence, during which the test stimulus response propagates in only one direction. We show that the VW is a generic feature of excitable media and describe the relationship between the properties of an excitable medium and the VW. We present asymptotic results that reveal the sensitivity of the VW to both the propagation velocity of the conditioning wavefront and the recovery process parameters. We also have identified a critical length of medium that must be excited in order to reveal vulnerability. Analytical results are in agreement with numerical studies. © 1994.
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- Fluids & Plasmas
- 4903 Numerical and computational mathematics
- 4902 Mathematical physics
- 4901 Applied mathematics
- 0102 Applied Mathematics
Citation
Published In
DOI
ISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Related Subject Headings
- Fluids & Plasmas
- 4903 Numerical and computational mathematics
- 4902 Mathematical physics
- 4901 Applied mathematics
- 0102 Applied Mathematics