doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.104.529545
(Circulation. 2005;112:1232-1240.)
© 2005 American Heart Association, Inc.
Basic Science for Clinicians |
The Dynamics of Cardiac Fibrillation
From the Cardiovascular Research Laboratory and the Departments of Medicine (Cardiology; J.N.W., Z.Q., A.G.), and Physiological Science (A.G.), David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (P.-S.C., S.-F.L., H.S.K., H.H.), Los Angeles, Calif, and the Department of Physics (A.K.), Northeastern University, Boston, Mass.
Correspondence to James N. Weiss, MD, Division of Cardiology, 3641 MRL Bldg, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1760. E-mail jweiss{at}mednet.ucla.edu
Reentry occurs when the electrical wave propagating through the atria or ventricles breaks locally and forms a rotor (also called a scroll wave or functional reentry). If the waves propagating outward from a rotor develop additional wavebreaks (which may form new rotors), fibrillation results. Tissue heterogeneity, exacerbated by electrical and structural remodeling from cardiac disease, has traditionally been considered the major factor promoting wavebreak and its degeneration to fibrillation. Recently, however, dynamic factors have also been recognized to play a key role. Dynamic factors refer to cellular properties of the cardiac action potential and Cai cycling, which dynamically generate wave instability and wavebreak, even in tissue that is initially completely homogeneous. Although the latter situation can only be created in computer simulations, its relevance to real (heterogeneous) cardiac tissue has been unequivocally demonstrated. Dynamic factors are related to membrane voltage (Vm) and Cai. Vm factors include electrical restitution of action potential duration and conduction velocity, short-term cardiac memory, and electrotonic currents. Cai factors are related to dynamic Cai cycling properties. They act synergistically, as well as with tissue heterogeneity, to promote wavebreak and fibrillation. As global properties, rather than local electrophysiological characteristics, dynamic factors represent an attractive target for novel therapies to prevent ventricular fibrillation.
Key Words: fibrillation • calcium • action potentials • antiarrhythmia agents • death, sudden
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