Wednesday October 22, 2003
Jim Keener
Department of Mathematics, University of Utah
Abstract:Hundreds of lives are saved daily because of defibrillators, either external defibrillators such as those used by paramedics or implanted defibrillators. In spite of this obvious success, the mechanistic explanation for this success is still unresolved and remains somewhat controversial. In this talk, I will use topological arguments to examine the method by which large scale virtual electrodes may defibrillate cardiac tissue. I will show that the probability of defibrillation success is bounded well below one, which contradicts the experimental evidence. I conclude that some other mechanism must be involved in defibrillation.
For more information contact J. Keener, 1-6089