Math Biology Seminar Abstracts

Wednesday, April 24, 2002 3:05 pm LCB 323

Speaker: Brad Peercy

Title: `` A Model of Border Zone Arrhythmias ''

Abstract: Hundreds of thousands of people in industrialized nations die from heart attacks every year. Coronary artery occlusion leading to ischemic cardiac tissue is the first step of a heart attack. The onset of ischemia is a dynamic process involving many changes in cardiac tissue at the cellular level, two of which are elevated extracellular potassium and uncoupling of gap junctions. In this talk, we describe an experimental procedure designed to understand the electrical activity that results from the interaction between healthy and ischemic tissue at their interface - the border zone. To model this behavior, we derive a two-variable, one-dimensional PDE model and an ionic ODE model which incorporate changes in extracellular potassium, electrical coupling, as well as the size of the region affected by ischemia. This model is then used to determine when changes in the parameters lead to oscillatory behavior. Finaly, a conjecture regarding reperfusion arrhythmias will be made.

For more information contact J. Keener, 1-6089

E-mail: keener@math.utah.edu