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

CBET-0756078极化微结构特征与心脏心律失常发展之间的联系尚不完全清楚。解决微结构特征改变的技术方法强调改变相邻心肌细胞之间的缝隙连接和围绕这些心肌细胞的纤维状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标测，电极组相对于感兴趣的微结构特征以较大的间隔放置。虽然微结构改变对心律失常发展的影响通常是从传统的心脏标测中推断出来的，但可用的空间分辨率阻碍了从成功传导到减量传导的转变以及对传播失败至关重要的传导阻滞的识别。这项建议的首要目标是设计和测试按一定尺寸分隔的非常小的电极阵列，以便准确分辨传导块。这将通过汇集微电子机械系统(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。该项目的智能优点在于，它将允许对发生传导障碍的空间区域进行仔细的定位。该项目的广泛影响涉及到信息技术教育、培训和推广目标，以及它对改善心脏电生理研究的影响。

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.