Negative filament tension of scroll waves in excitable media

Scroll waves are vortices that occur in three-dimensional excitable media. Scroll waves have been observed in a variety of systems including cardiac tissue, where they are associated with cardiac arrhythmias. The disorganization of scroll waves into chaotic behavior is thought to be the mechanism of ventricular fibrillation. One possible mechanism for this process of scroll wave instability is negative filament tension. The resulting complex, often turbulent dynamics was studied in many generic models of excitable media as well as in physiologically realistic models of cardiac tissue. Negative filament tension is related to tissue excitability. We consider the application of the negative tension mechanism to computational cardiology, where it may be regarded as a fundamental mechanism that explains differences in the onset of arrhythmias in thin and thick tissue.

Related Publications

Negative tension of scroll wave filaments and turbulence in three-dimensional excitablemedia and application in cardiac dynamics.
S. Alonso, M. Bär and A. V. Panfilov, Bull. Math. Biol. 75, 1351-1376 (2013).

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Negative filament tension at high excitability in a model of cardiac tissue.
S. Alonso and A. V. Panfilov. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 218101 (2008).

Negative filament tension in the Luo-Rudy model of cardiac tissue.
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Negative-Tension Instability of Scroll Waves and Winfree Turbulence in the Oregonator Model.
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Scroll Wave Instability Controlled by External Fluctuations.
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Suppression of Scroll Wave Turbulence by Noise.
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Taming Winfree Turbulence of Scroll Waves in Excitable Media.
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