"THEORY & COMP IN MOL BIO PHY", AUG 9-20, 2006, LA JOLLA, CA

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中利用 资源由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。子项目和 调查员(PI)可能从NIH的另一个来源获得了主要资金， 并因此可以在其他清晰的条目中表示。列出的机构是 该中心不一定是调查人员的机构。 在正常的心脏传导中，电激活的大致直线波会引起肌肉收缩波，即心跳。在室颤(VF)中，电激活波分裂成多波混沌状态，是导致心源性猝死的主要原因。我们的研究集中在这样一个问题上：为什么海浪会破裂？ 传统的观点认为，波是由解剖异质性造成的：纤维化、梗塞和细胞与细胞间的电耦合丧失等因素被认为起决定性作用。然而，非线性动态学家提出了另一种机制：受反应扩散偏微分方程式控制的直线波可以变得不稳定并破裂，即使在完全均匀的组织中，由于电不稳定性。我们在心脏组织制备方面的工作表明，解决这些电不稳定性的干预措施可以防止纤颤。(Garfinkel，Kim等人)2000年) 这项研究的目的是回答以下问题：这两类因素(解剖异质性和纯动力学不稳定性)在发生和维持纤颤方面有多重要？他们是如何互动的？

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. In normal cardiac conduction, a roughly rectilinear wave of electrical activation causes the wave of muscular contraction that is the heartbeat. In ventricular fibrillation (VF), the leading cause of sudden cardiac death, the wave of electrical activation breaks up into a multi-wave chaotic state. Our research has focused on the question: why does the wave break up? The traditional view was that the wave was broken up by anatomic heterogeneity: such factors as fibrosis, infarct, and loss of cell-to-cell electrical coupling were thought to play the decisive role. However, nonlinear dynamicists have proposed another mechanism: rectilinear waves, governed by reaction-diffusion partial differential equations, can become unstable and break up, even in perfectly homogeneous tissue, due to electrical instabilities. Our work in cardiac tissue preparations has shown that interventions that address these electrical instabilities can prevent fibrillation. (Garfinkel, Kim et al. 2000) The objective of this research is to answer the questions: how important are these two types of factors (anatomical heterogeneity and purely dynamical instability) in generating and sustaining fibrillation? How do they interact?