Math Awareness Month Lecture:
Heart attacks can give you mathematics!



Conduction system of the heart and normal EKG.



Examples of normal and abnormal EKG's.


Movie (from Witkowski's lab) of ventricular fibrillation.



Where's the Math?


Normal propagation following a stimulus applied at the apex of the ventricles.


Another view of normal waves. Here the stimulus was applied to the endocardial wall of the left ventricle.


Wave pattern (a single spiral) on the ventricular surface, during monomorphic tachycardia.


Ionic column from the Temple of Artemus, Sardis.


Ventricular cross section showing reentrant activity (a scroll) during monomorphic tachycardia.


View of the three dimensional structure of a single scroll wave.


Scroll wave reentrant pattern on the surface of the ventricles, and on cut-away section.


Transparent view of scroll wave.


Surface view of fibrillation.


One possible mechanism for wave instability and spiral formation.


Transparent view of spiral breakup and fibrillation.