Search results for "Electrical conduction system of the heart"

Estimation of Location and Activation Time of Purkinje Myocardial Junctions from Sparse and Noisy Endocardial Electrical Samples

2017

The activation of the myocardial muscle is triggered by Purkinje-myocardial junctions (PMJs), which are the terminal sites of the specialised cardiac conduction system (CCS). Obtaining the location of the PMJs and other sources of endocardial ectopic activity would be desirable for building computer models of cardiac electrophysiology and planning ablation interventions. We present a method to estimate the location and activation times of endocardial electrical sources in a 3D model of the ventricles. The algorithm requires a set of discrete electrical samples on the endocardium, which can include errors in location and activation time. The estimated sources are properly placed with a locat…

2019

Sinus node dysfunction (SND) and atrial fibrillation (AF) often coexist; however, the molecular mechanisms linking both conditions remain elusive. Mutations in the homeobox-containing SHOX2 gene have been recently associated with early-onset and familial AF. Shox2 is a key regulator of sinus node development, and its deficiency leads to bradycardia, as demonstrated in animal models. To provide an extended SHOX2 gene analysis in patients with distinct arrhythmias, we investigated SHOX2 as a susceptibility gene for SND and AF by screening 98 SND patients and 450 individuals with AF. The functional relevance of the novel mutations was investigated in vivo and in vitro, together with the previo…

Analysis of Microstructure of the Cardiac Conduction System Based on Three-Dimensional Confocal Microscopy

2016

The specialised conducting tissues present in the ventricles are responsible for the fast distribution of the electrical impulse from the atrio-ventricular node to regions in the subendocardial myocardium. Characterisation of anatomical features of the specialised conducting tissues in the ventricles is highly challenging, in particular its most distal section, which is connected to the working myocardium via Purkinje-myocardial junctions. The goal of this work is to characterise the architecture of the distal section of the Purkinje network by differentiating Purkinje cells from surrounding tissue, performing a segmentation of Purkinje fibres at cellular scale, and mathematically describin…

Changes in the spatial distribution of the Purkinje network after acute myocardial infarction in the pig

2018

Purkinje cells (PCs) are more resistant to ischemia than myocardial cells, and are suspected to participate in ventricular arrhythmias following myocardial infarction (MI). Histological studies afford little evidence on the behavior and adaptation of PCs in the different stages of MI, especially in the chronic stage, and no quantitative data have been reported to date beyond subjective qualitative depictions. The present study uses a porcine model to present the first quantitative analysis of the distal cardiac conduction system and the first reported change in the spatial distribution of PCs in three representative stages of MI: an acute model both with and without reperfusion; a subacute …

A quantitative structural and morphometric analysis of the Purkinje network and the Purkinje-myocardial junctions in pig hearts

2017

The morpho-functional properties of the distal section of the cardiac Purkinje network (PN) and the Purkinje-myocardial junctions (PMJs) are fundamental to understanding the sequence of electrical activation in the heart. The overall structure of the system has already been described, and several computational models have been developed to gain insight into its involvement in cardiac arrhythmias or its interaction with implantable devices, such as pacemakers. However, anatomical descriptions of the PN in the literature have not enabled enough improvements in the accuracy of anatomical-based electrophysiological simulations of the PN in 3D hearts models. In this work, we study the global dis…

Microwave effects on isolated chick embryo hearts.

1986

This study was designed to examine the effects of microwaves on the electric activity of hearts as a means of elucidating interactive mechanisms of nonionizing radiation with cardiac tissue. Experiments were performed on isolated hearts of 9-12-day-old chick embryos placed in small petri dishes. Oxygenated isotonic Ringer's solution at 37 degrees C permitted heart survival. Samples were irradiated at 2.45 GHz with a power density of 3 mW/cm2. The heart signal was detected with a glass micropipet inserted into the sinoatrial node and examined by means of a Berg-Fourier analyzer. Pulsed microwaves caused the locking of the heartbeat to the modulation frequency, whereas continuous wave irradia…

Inverse estimation of terminal connections in the cardiac conduction system

2017

Modeling the cardiac conduction system is a challenging problem in the context of computational cardiac electrophysiology. Its ventricular section, the Purkinje system, is responsible for triggering tissue electrical activation at discrete terminal locations, which subsequently spreads throughout the ventricles. In this paper, we present an algorithm that is capable of estimating the location of the Purkinje system triggering points from a set of random measurements on tissue. We present the properties and the performance of the algorithm under controlled synthetic scenarios. Results show that the method is capable of locating most of the triggering points in scenarios with a fair ratio bet…

Towards High Resolution Computational Models of the Cardiac Conduction System: A Pipeline for Characterization of Purkinje-Ventricular-Junctions

2011

The cardiac conduction system (CCS) has been in the spot light of the clinical and modeling community in recent years because of its fundament role in physiology and pathophysiology of the heart. Experimental research has focused mainly on investigating the electrical properties of the Purkinje-ventricular-junctions (PVJs). The structure of the PVJs has only been described through schematic drawings but not thoroughly studied. In this work confocal microscopy was used with the aim of three-dimensional characterization of PVJs. Adult rabbit hearts were labeled with fluorescent dyes, imaged with confocal microscopy and Purkinje fibers differentiated from other cardiac tissue by their lack of …

Personalization of Fast Conduction Purkinje System in Eikonal-Based Electrophysiological Models with Optical Mapping Data

2010

We present a pipeline for the personalization of model-based Purkinje fast conduction system using fast electrophysiological models and optical mapping data acquired from ex-vivo porcine hearts. The regional density of the Purkinje terminals as well as the latest endocardial activation time were the parameters personalized in an iterative procedure maximizing the similarity between the outcome of the electrophysiological simulations and measurements obtained from optical mapping data. We used a fast wave-front Eikonal-based electrophysiological model that generated the depolarization time maps that were subsequently compared with measurements at each iteration of the optimization stage. The…

Death of a 23-year-old man from cardiac conduction system injury through a blunt chest impact after a car accident.

2014

Abstract Cardiac contusion, usually caused by blunt chest trauma, has been recognized with increased frequency over the past decades. Traffic accidents are the most frequent causes of cardiac contusion resulting from a direct blow to the chest. Myocardial contusion is difficult to diagnose; the clinical presentation varies greatly, ranging from a lack of symptoms to cardiogenic shock and arrhythmia. Although death is rare, cardiac contusion can be fatal. The authors report a case of death due to a cardiac conduction system injury from a blunt chest impact following a car accident. The autopsy showed no external signs of thoracic trauma, no evident rib or sternum fractures. A small sub-endoc…