Model and Experimental Studies of Cardiac Conduction Block Using Microscopic Electrical Mapping

心脏微结构特征与心律失常发展之间的联系尚不完全清楚。解决微观结构特征变化的技术方法强调相邻肌细胞之间间隙连接的变化以及围绕这些肌细胞的纤维性胶原网络的几何排列。心律失常发展的研究使用传统的心脏测绘，将电极放置在相对于感兴趣的微观结构特征的宽间距上。虽然微观结构改变对心律失常发展的影响通常是从传统的心脏测绘中推断出来的，但可用的空间分辨率无法识别从成功传导到减少传导和传导阻滞的过渡，而传导阻滞是传播失败的核心。本提案的首要目标是设计和测试非常小的电极阵列，这些电极在精确分辨传导块所需的尺寸尺度上分离。这将通过汇集来自微机电系统（MEMS），理论建模和心脏电生理学等不同研究领域的专业知识来实现。该项目的智力优势在于，它将允许传导阻滞发生的空间区域被仔细定位。该项目的广泛影响与其教育，培训和推广目标有关，此外还涉及心脏电生理研究的改进。

CBET-0756078PollardThe link between microstructural features and arrhythmia development in the heart is not completely understood. Technical approaches to resolve alterations in microstructural features emphasize changes to gap junctions between adjacent myocytes and to the geometric arrangement of the fibrillar collagen network that surrounds those myocytes. Studies of arrhythmia development use traditional cardiac mapping with sets of electrodes positioned at wide spacing relative to the microstructural features of interest. While influences of microstructural alterations on arrhythmia development are often inferred from traditional cardiac mapping, the available spatial resolution prevents identification of the transition from successful conduction to decremental conduction and conduction block that is central to propagation failure. The overriding goal of this proposal is to design and test arrays of very small electrodes separated on a size scale necessary for accurate resolution of conduction block. This will be achieved by bringing together expertise from the diverse research areas of microelectrical mechanical systems (MEMS), theoretical modeling, and cardiac electrophysiology. The intellectual merit of the project is that it will allow spatial regions over which conduction block occurs to be carefully localized. The broad impacts of the project are related to it educational, training and outreach goals, in addition to its implications for improvements in cardiac electrophysiological studies.